New research shows one big change when cops wear cameras

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Cameras worn on police uniforms have been lauded as a possible solution to many of the problems facing officers in the line of duty, from violence against law enforcement to the unnecessary use of force. The US Department of Justice recently announced a plan to spend $20 million on body cameras for cops in 32 states.

The cameras are controversial, as all surveillance technology tends to be. And until recently, there’s been little hard evidence about how effective body cameras actually are. According to new research from the University of Cambridge, which studied seven police forces in the US and the UK, the answer is that they are transformative in at least one way.

Researchers used complaints against police as a proxy for the effect of the cameras, hypothesizing that one major reason for complaints is that cops behaved in a negative, avoidable way. (There are other reasons for complaints, the researchers acknowledge, given the emotionally charged nature of many interactions with police.)

Compared to the previous year when cameras were not worn, complaints across the seven regions fell by 98% over the 12 months of the experiment. The study encompassed nearly 1.5 million officer hours across more than 4,000 shifts.

“I cannot think of any [other] single intervention in the history of policing that dramatically changed the way that officers behave, the way that suspects behave, and the way they interact with each other,” Barak Ariel, the lead researcher, told the BBC.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new-research-shows-one-big-change-when-cops-wear-cameras/ar-BBwMuIp?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp

[Stuart G]

1. K an R...

Compared to the previous year when cameras were not worn, complaints across the seven regions fell by 98% over the 12 months of the experiment. The study encompassed nearly 1.5 million officer hours across more than 4,000 shifts. ............................

98 per cent..........incredible....

[citood]

2. I'm all for cameras. Every cop should wear one.

However, there is more than one reason for complaints to drop...and the cynical side of me thinks part of this drop is in false complaints, now that there are cameras which can disprove them.

[Igel]

3. It's the largest study I've seen.

But the findings are similar.

About half the effect is from cops' not escalating the situation.

About half the effect is from civilians' not escalating the situation.

It's not the cameras per se. It's when they're informed that the cameras are rolling.

It probably cuts down on false complaints, but if you know you're being recorded you tend not to do so many foolish things.

I wonder if this effect is the same when a sympathetic bystander is recording so that the civilian knows that it'll go on social media but not necessary in court. Some videos, I could wear, show the "victim" hamming it up for the camera. "You recording this?" Then suddenly the civilian's in more pain, louder, is more insulting.

Some slightly squirrelly education research was sort of along the same lines. Students tend to be better behaved and complete their work more on time if there's something that's perceived to be eyes. In other words, if watched, there's something to assist that ego and fight against that unbridled id.