Representations of Policing Problems and Body-Worn Cameras in Existing Research

Abstract

In this article, we analyze scholarly publications on body-worn cameras (BWCs) to shed light on scholars’ grounding assumptions about BWC technology and the policing problems assumed to be amended by it. We conducted a systematic search and a double-blind review, including 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, and analyzed how scholars warrant their studies, their findings and their recommendations. We found that BWC research largely investigates the effectiveness of BWCs worn by police officers in the United States and build upon a set of dominant policing problem representations: the police crisis in the United States and the police use of force, lack of oversight and control of police officers, citizen dissatisfaction and lack of police legitimacy, and police officer resistance toward BWC use. Assumptions underlying all four problem representations is that BWC technology will amend these problems and is legitimate and useful if the public supports it. Taken together, this enhances the representation of BWC technology as a self-evident means of improving community relations and police legitimacy in the United States. Finally, we provide recommendations for future research on BWCs, particularly the need for research departing from altogether different problem representations.

Organizational legitimation of body-worn camera use in the Swedish private security industry

“…The organizational narrative of the vulnerable officer and the caring employer is firmly established in Sweden, in contrast to the USA, where BWC use in policing was primarily motivated by a desire to control officers, hold them accountable for their actions, and reprimand them for alleged misbehavior (see also Backman and Hansen L€ ofstrand, 2021).…”

“…Implicitly, the head of security disavows practices involving BWC use to surveil and control the work of employees. A systematic research review on BWCs has shown that a surveillance-as-control discourse has been prominent in policies, practices and research about implementation and evaluation of BWCs (Backman and Hansen L€ ofstrand, 2021). In UK and USA environments BWC recordings are used to evaluate and reprimand officers for their actions (see, e.g.…”

“…Existing research: grounds for BWC technology legitimation Available BWC research mostly investigates the effectiveness of BWCs worn by police officers in the US, as shown in a scoping review by Backman and Hansen L€ ofstrand (2021). The scoping review addressed the policing problems that researchers stated or assumed that the BWC technology would solve, finding that mainstream BWC research builds upon a set of dominant policing problem representations.…”

“…The BWC technology addresses these problems by increasing control and police accountability, which is seen as legitimate if it has public support. Generally, BWC technology has been represented in USA research as a self-evident means of improving community relations and police legitimacy, mainly by deterring officers from unjustified use of force against the public (Backman and Hansen L€ ofstrand, 2021).…”

“…Mainstream empirical quantitative BWC research has investigated the effectiveness of BWC use based on the assumption that BWCs "civilize" both officers (in the sense that they do not use unnecessary or unjustified force) and members of the public subject to police interventions. Results about the extent to which BWCs can curb unacceptable police behavior are mixed (Backman and Hansen L€ ofstrand, 2021;Lum et al, 2020). Researchers interested in discovering whether BWCs protect officers have conducted quantitative studies to investigate whether assaults on police officers decrease when they use BWCs.…”