BodyWorn Camera Program - Literature review Example

Literature Review: Can Body-Worn Camera Police-Involved Shootings, Use of Force against Citizens, and Assaults on Police

Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) have been spreading under the assumption of the conduct, accountability, and performance of police when it comes to the public are enhanced by using these devices. The engagement of the police and public is likely to change because of the encounter of video recording. Body worn cameras are recognized as a strategy for law enforcement by the Department of Justice ("Body‐Worn Camera Program Fact Sheet", 2015).They aim at improving the safety of the public, reduction of crime and improvement of public trusts between citizens and police officers. Both civil rights and law enforcement advocates are excited by the BWCs to making improvements in the transparency accountability in policing (Mateescu, Rosenblat & Botd, 2015). This will lead to the reduction of deaths of the civilians brought about by police shooting and using force. This will be achieved through the capturing on the camera of encounters of civilians and police that are brutal or fatal. Two theories can be used in explaining the involvement of police involved shootings, assaults against officers and using force. The two theories are rational choice theory and deterrence theory. The two theories assume that the actions of human beings are based on decisions which are rational thus, the people are already aware of the consequences of their actions.

Rational Choice Theory

Rational choice theory is used for understanding and modeling economic, social and individual behavior. The theory is used to understand the behavior of human beings. There is an assumption of rational choice theorist that are applicable in the impact of BWCs on behavior when it comes to the reduction of police being involved in shootings, use force against citizens and assaults against police.

The first assumption is individualism that implies it is a person that takes any given action (Ogu, 2013). The individuals are the actors in the society and are always acting and behaving in a way that is rational. They are always interested in their selves, and their actions are the effects of the outcomes of the society at large. This explains why the police use excessive force while dealing with the public and why citizens become violent during encounters as a result of the outcome of societal views. Although the police use force they still consider themselves as rational beings in their self-interest. Another assumption is optimality where people choose their actions in an optimal way considering their preferences as individuals and also the opportunities and constraints that they have. According to Ogu (2013) optimality takes place when there is no other course of action that a person would prefer over an action which is chosen. The action which a person chooses is not necessarily the best when some objectives and judgments from outside are considered. This shows that people try their best given a circumstance as they view them. In the case of the police, they are involved in shootings and using force against citizens because that is what they know is right from their judgments (Carmichael & Piquero, 2004), while this is also why citizens are aware of dangerous outcomes with police and act accordingly.

There was a study carried out by Ariel et al. (2016) to understand how the boy-worn cameras had effects on incidents that were recorded of the police using force. The report was aimed at understanding the findings that were counter-intuitive on the analysis of the discretion f police officers that was related to the activation of the body-worn cameras. The research showed that there was a significant main effect on the police officers using force. There were instances where using force increased and other instances it decreased. There were times that the police officers did not have carefulness about the cameras being on. However when they took after the convention of the experiment, the use of force reduced as it was expected. The findings showed that body-worm cameras can be used in deterring police from using force but in cases where the police had some discretion on the activation of then cameras. When the police officers used discretions on their shifts reports on the use of force were increasing. This is where optimality takes place because the police will choose their actions on the opportunities and constraints available.

The next assumption is self-regarding interest where the action of a person is concerned on his or her welfare. There are different types of groups that can exist like unselfishness, cooperation and charity which may not go hand in hand with the optimality of a person. Such interest may be aimed at fulfilling the personal interest of a person (Henstock& Ariel, 2015). The shootings by the police can be aimed at making them feel good or in raising their self-esteem in the eyes of other people. Through using Body Worn Cameras it will be easier to determine if the police did the actions intentionally (Silver, 2006).  Pang and Pavlou (2016) carried out a research to know how using technology by the police will affect the use of lethal force on citizens. The findings show that using smartphones and statistical analyses of data on crime are related to the decrease in shootings which are deadly. The use of body-worn cameras is connected to an increase in the death of citizens’ shootings by the police which was not the exception of using BWCs in reducing shootings which are deadly. This is explained by self-regarding interest which is one of the assumptions of rational choice theory. The aim of the police is to fulfill their personal interest. They shoot the citizens in a deadly way for them to feel good and also raise their self-esteem. They mostly want to be praised by the people for doing their jobs the right way especially if the shooting was done on a criminal. This will make the police who took part in the shooting to feel good and raise their self-esteem in the eyes of the citizens.

Another assumption is rationality where people act in ways that will be more beneficial to them and each person is supposed to take the cause of the actions done by them which to them was the best option and would be advantageous to them. In this case, the police use force while dealing with the public because it will be beneficial to them. The last assumption is structured to dictate the action of a person. This shows that the structure is what makes the police shoot and use excessive force while dealing with the public. The theory explains that posit which an individual takes the actions either lawful or criminal leads to the maximization of payoff and the minimization of costs (Akers, 1990).

With the increase of deaths of citizens because of police using force there has been a number of discussions on the accountability of the police and their relationships with the community. Hedberg, Katz and Choate (2016) estimated two measures of the effectiveness of body-worn cameras by comparing incidences that occur in a camera assigned squad to incidents which occur in a squad assigned control. The findings suggested that compliance is very important to each body-worn cameras program. The presence of BWCs had effects on complaints made against the police through a reduction. There was low compliance rates that led to more complains that would not have occurred if the police were assigned body-worn cameras. According to the rational choice theory, this goes hand in hand with the assumption of structured to dictate the actions of a person. The structure available makes the police to use force when dealing with citizens or not.

Deterrence Theory

There have been some researchers that have shown that many species will make changes their behavior when they are aware that someone is observing them. There is evidence in that perception on surveillance that is social, self-awareness and responding which is socially desirable. The studies propose that people agree to social norms and make changes in their conduct because of the cognizance that there is a person watching (Ariel et al., 2016). This shows that when a person is aware that their behavior is being observed will have effects on the processes of social cognitive.

Some researchers connected to deterrence theory have showed that when there is certainty of apprehension for wrongdoing is higher when the severity of the action is substantial. This is if it is an act that is morally or socially unexpected and is not likely to occur (Nagin, 2013). This mostly happens around disorder and crime where the effects that come about because of apprehension are seen as harsh. These are things that fines and imprisonment and makes people not wanting to be caught.

The BWCs will help in deterring people from not complying with rules of conduct. The cameras can be able to use some mechanisms but the preventative mechanism which is prominent for the cameras is the reduction of noncompliance by deterring offenders who are potential by making them not to wish to risk conviction and apprehension by the evidence that will be recorded on the tape or an operator who will be observing their behavior (Wikström & Treiber, 2016). Just like the observers, the cameras will make the police continuously conscious of the fact that someone is watching them and will also drive them to compliance. This is because the police will be aware that that the cameras are recording their actions and aware that behavior that is unacceptable will be recorded by the cameras and the detection is certain.

Body-worn cameras can be taken as threats which are credible in deterrence. If the BWCs by the police are expected to have influences on their behavior and for them to be taken as cues that laws which are legal should be followed, then the level of awareness should be high. The cameras are proved to deal with dynamics that precipitates the suspects in doing actions which are negative, which can lead to the police officers using force while dealing with them (Ariel, Farrar & Sutherland, 2014). The cameras will also make officers to endure situations which are stressful and accept some forms of respect which when the camera could be absent they would normally not. Through this, the subculture of the police of accepting and responding to forces illegitimately will be affected by the cameras because misconduct will be detected (Apel, 2013).

There was a study carried out to examine the perceptions of residents in two counties in Florida on the use of BWCs (Crow, Snyder, Crichlow & Smykla, 2017). The factors that influenced their views on body-worn cameras were structural equation modeling. The findings showed that positive perceptions on the performance of police and increased interaction with the police were related to the benefits that were perceived and were greater of body-worn cameras. The concern for crime and fairness were related to be the benefits of body-worn cameras thus having a perception that is positive when it comes to the devices. This includes improving the behavior of both the residents and police officers. For the police officers it helps in collecting quality evidence considering that the views of the community on the legitimacy of the police and performance are shaped through concerns about crime and procedural fairness (Cao, 2011). Majority of the people hold views that are positive of the police (Weitzer & Tuch, 2005). This leads to perceptions that are positive of body-worn cameras because the public believes that videos for the police officers doing their job in a perfect way will reinforce perceptions which are positive. This is in accordance to deterrence theory that people will change their behavior when they know that there is something or someone watching them.

Smykla, Crow, Crichlow and Snyder (2015) also carried out a research on the benefits of body-worn cameras by the police. This was on the law enforcement perceptions of the commands on staffs of body-worn cameras. The data which was used in this study was gotten from surveys that were administered command staff of local, state and federal law agencies of law enforcement. From the findings, the command staff believed that BWCs will have effects on the decisions of the police officers on dealing with citizens while using force. This forces the police to be more reluctant in using force that is necessary in dealing with the public. The respondents believed that using body-worn cameras is given support by the public because they do not support the police. This is according to the deterrence theory where social norms in this case being body-worn cameras make people change there conduct because there is someone watching them. The police will be able to conduct their selves in a better manner thus reducing police involved shooting, the use of force against citizens and assaults on police.

A study was carried out on thee perceptions of body-worn cameras among citizens who had encounters with body-worn camera records and exploring the potential for a civilizing impact on the behavior of citizens (White, Gaub & Todak, 2017). The citizens were asked questions through telephone interviews who had recorded encounters with police officers who had body-worn cameras. The findings of the study showed how the respondents were satisfied with the treatment they received during their encounter with the police. This made the respondents have a positive attitude about body-worn cameras. Some of the respondents were aware of the BWCs during their encounter thus there was self-awareness and the police were responding to what was desirable socially. The study shows that there is a connection which is positive between the awareness of body-worn cameras and enhancing the perception of procedural justice. The cameras will help in deterring both the police and citizens from not complying with the law because they are aware that they are being watched. Both the police and citizens will fear that evidence will be recorded through the cameras.

Both the police and civilians on the street will behave in a different way when they are under the watchful lens on a camera (Yokum, Ravishankar & Coppock, 2017). When people notice that they are being watched they behave in a different way like increasing charitable giving and work productivity. It also encourages honesty and promotion of adherence to rules and eventually the reduction of crime. BWCs encourages the police to adhere to the protocol of departments and deter them from engaging in a behavior that is unprofessional or misconduct like the use of force and deadly shootings (Yokum, Ravishankar & Coppock, 2017). This is the same for civilians who are dealing with police officers who are equipped with BWCs who may not likely to engage in behavior that is inappropriate.