The History, Policy Implications, and Knowledge Gaps of the CCTV Literature: Insights for the Development of Body-Worn Video Camera Research

Abstract

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) and body-worn video cameras (BWVCs) have rapidly spread throughout policing. Such widespread deployment has heightened the importance of identifying best practices for both of these technologies. The research community has worked toward the identification of such best practices, with bodies of knowledge emerging for both CCTV and BWVCs over recent decades. Given its earlier emergence, research on CCTV is more developed. Nonetheless, the BWVC literature is quickly becoming robust, with BWVC research developing at a much more rapid pace than research on most other police technologies. This essay reviews the CCTV and BWVC literatures across four main areas of inquiry: (1) program effect and common outcome measures, (2) contextual factors influencing program effect, (3) intervention costs, and (4) implementation issues. Specific attention is paid to knowledge gaps within the CCTV literature and how BWVC research can avoid (or, in certain cases, already has avoided) similar knowledge gaps.

The results of a randomized controlled trial of police body-worn video in Australia

“…For example, are they intended to improve evidence gathering and provide efficiencies, improve the public's sense of police legitimacy, or change public/police behavior (and if so, when, where, and how)? Recent works by Piza (2018) and Malm (2019) critique current approaches to using BWV, highlighting the inconsistent, unclear causal mechanism(s) through which cameras are intended to simultaneously address multiple, competing goals. It is likely that future BWV camera interventions would benefit from additional pre-implementation focus on determining the context-specific mechanisms by which BWV is a part of the solution to existing problems.…”

“…Finally, prior to implementing BWV, police agencies should consider the (publically funded) cost-benefit ratio of deployment (see Piza (2018), for a discussion of these issues). This is not to argue that cameras cannot have a cost-saving effect (e.g., discuss cost savings in terms of reduction in citizen complaints resulting from camera use), nor that cost savings should be a sole/primary driver of BWV deployment, but instead to ensure police departments consider factors such as starting rates for complaints, mechanism-specific, targeted use of cameras, and develop realistic expectations of their likely benefits/impact before commencing wholescale rollout.…”

Measuring Procedural Justice Policy Adherence During Use of Force Events: The Body-Worn Camera as a Performance Monitoring Tool

“…Research on the effect of BWCs has developed at a much more rapid pace than most (if not all) other police technologies (Lum et al, 2015;Piza, 2018). Lum and colleagues (2020) conducted a meta-analysis measuring the effect of BWCs on police officer and citizen behavior as reported through 30 experiments and quasi-experiments.…”

CCTV in deprived neighbourhoods – a short-time follow-up of effects on crime and crime clearance

“…The use of CCTV among police and other actors interested in security have continuously increased throughout the last few decades (Piza, 2018). It is now fairly well established that CCTV cameras can reduce crime, but mainly for some crime types, and on some types of locations (Piza et al, 2019).…”