Many people are enthusiastic about the potential benefits of police body-worn cameras (BWC). Despite this enthusiasm, however, there has been no research on law enforcement command staff perceptions of BWCs. Given the importance that law enforcement leadership plays in the decision to adopt and implement BWCs, it is necessary to assess their perceptions. This is the first study to measure law enforcement leadership attitudes toward BWCs. The study relies on data collected from surveys administered to command staff representing local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in a large southern county. Among the major perceptual findings are that command staff believe BWCs will impact police officers' decisions to use force in encounters with citizens and police will be more reluctant to use necessary force in encounters with the public. Respondents also believe that use of BWCs is supported by the public because society does not trust police, media will use BWC data to embarrass police, and pressure to implement BWCs comes from the media. Perceptions of the impact of BWCs on safety, privacy, and police effectiveness are also discussed.

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Despite relatively little extant research, efforts to expand the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) in policing are increasing. Although recent research suggests positive impacts of BWCs on reducing police use-of-force and citizen complaints, little is known about community members’ perceptions of BWCs. The current study examined perceptions of residents of two Florida counties and found a large majority of respondents supported the use of BWCs. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine factors that influence views of BWCs. Findings indicate that positive perceptions of police performance and more police interaction were associated with greater perceived benefits of BWCs, whereas concerns about the privacy reduced perceived BWC benefits. Respondents’ views of procedural fairness and crime concern were indirectly related to perceptions BWC benefits. Non-White and younger respondents were indirectly less likely to perceive benefits. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

The fatal shooting of a young, black, and male citizen named Michael Brown by a white male police officer in Ferguson (MO) generated political and media backlash that continues to erode law enforcement legitimacy today. Law enforcement are sensitive to changes in the public discourse on their profession and have responded in kind. A plethora of discussion has focused on the potential existence of a so-called "Ferguson Effect", whereby de-policing has emerged among officers as a result of concerns about being subjected to negative media scrutiny for racial profiling or excessive use of force, in turn increasing crime rates. Unfortunately, the "Ferguson Effect" is long on anecdotes but short on data. To better understand officers' attitudes, perspectives and strategies and the way in which the negative press related to the Ferguson incident interacted with these, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 law enforcement officials were supplemented with participant observations of officer deployments in two southern State counties in the United States. Officer confidence, morale, and policing strategies were queried within the post-Ferguson era. The data suggest that there had been an increased conceptual awareness of procedural justice but also a reduction in officer morale and emphasis on proactive policing strategies, and that Ferguson was often drawn upon as a reference point among officers. The implications for these findings are discussed in terms of future police policies and practices within a procedural justice framework that seeks to reduce crime and increase law enforcement legitimacy.

Against the complex backdrop of a post-modern era, characterized by a renewed emphasis on public accountability, oppositional social and political movements, it has been argued that traditional agents of social control have increasingly begun to experience a sense of disempowerment. Nowhere has this been more apparent than within the context of policing, where the increased influence of the mass media, social media, and newly empowered groups has led to an apparent legitimacy crisis on both sides of the Atlantic. To better understand officers' views, attitudes, and perspectives about the changing landscape of policing, this paper reports on insights from a comparative study involving participant observation in two counties in a Southern State in the United States of America and three inner-city areas in Scotland. The observations were paired with in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 American and 22 Scottish officers. The data suggest that officers on both sides of the Atlantic are hostile towards the increasing influence of new forms of media and digital activism. Many officers also expressed concern for declining public cooperation and perceived there to have been a general diminution of police authority and enforcement tactics. Finally, there was a general feeling of reduced officer self-legitimacy among the participants but an increased awareness of procedural justice and alternative (and more covert) enforcement strategies. The implications from these findings are discussed in terms of changing perceptions of justice, legitimacy, social ideology, and the proposed consequences for rights-based policing in the 21 st Century.