The impact of law enforcement officer perceptions of organizational justice on their attitudes regarding body-worn cameras

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

“…Pelfrey and Keener (2016) similarly found that police officer rank was associated with higher expectations and more positive attitudes toward BWVCs. In addition, Kyle and White (2016) found that female officers held more positive attitudes of BWVC than males. Young and Ready (2015) argued that acceptance of BWVCs was largely contingent on officers' shared experience, which creates a "diffusion of cognitive frames" by which a positive opinion of one officer influences the opinions of other officers in his or her network.…”

“…A number of studies have emerged since the reviews conducted by Cubitt et al (2017) and Lum et al (2015). These studies have focused on outcomes previously addressed in the literature, including citizen complaints against officers (Ariel, Sutherland, Henstock, Young, Drover, et al, 2017;Braga, Coldren, Sousa, Rodriguez, & Alper, 2017;Hedberg, Katz, & Choate, 2016;White, Gaub, & Todak, 2017;Yokum, Ravishankar, & Coppock, 2017), police officer use of force (Ariel et al, 2016a;Braga et al, 2017;Headley, Guerette, & Shariati, 2017;Henstock & Ariel, 2017;Jennings, Fridell, Lynch, Jetelina, & Reingle Gonzalez, 2017;White et al, 2017;Yokum et al, 2017), officer decisions to arrest or issue citations (Braga et al, 2017;Headley et al, 2017;Hedberg et al, 2016;McClure, LaVigne, Lynch, & Golian, 2017;Yokum et al, 2017), and police officer attitudes toward BWVCs (Kyle & White, 2016;Pelfrey & Keener, 2016). Findings of these studies were mixed, with BWVC deployment being associated with decreased levels of use for force in certain studies (Braga et al, 2017;Henstock & Ariel, 2017;Jennings et al, 2017;White et al, 2017), while Ariel et al (2016a), Headley, Guerette, and Shariati (2017), and Yokum, Ravishankar, and Coppock (2017) found null effects.…”

“…Similarly, Headley et al (2017) found that the introduction of BWVC was associated with increased numbers of field contacts and traffic citations but decreased numbers of arrests in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Regarding police officer attitudes, Kyle and White (2016) found that support for BWVCs was linked to their perceptions of organizational justice and Pelfrey and Keener (2016) found BWVCs were supported by both commanders and officers, although officers expressed concerns regarding suspect privacy and administrator expectations. Headley et al (2017) found that officers were pessimistic about BWVC, with officers reporting that the cameras would not improve transparency and accountability, reduce citizen complaints, or reduce officer use of force.…”

Attitudinal Changes Toward Body-Worn Cameras: Perceptions of Cameras, Organizational Justice, and Procedural Justice Among Volunteer and Mandated Officers

“…These researchers additionally examined differences between patrol officers and those in specialty units and found that the needs and concerns of these groups of officers differed depending on their assignment (Guerin et al, 2016; see also Gaub et al, 2020) Other cross-sectional research has utilized surveys collected from officers in multiple agencies to examine differences in officer perceptions of BWCs, depending upon whether the technology is used in their agency. These findings generally suggest that officers working in agencies that have already deployed BWCs have more positive perceptions of this technology than officers working in agencies that are not using BWCs (Kyle & White, 2017;McLean et al, 2015;Smykla et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, the relationship between BWCs and burnout was partially mediated by perceived organizational support (Adams & Mastracci, 2019b). Another study found that officers who felt that their agency was organizationally just had more positive perceptions of BWCs (Kyle & White, 2017), suggesting that such concerns can be mitigated. A study of officers in the United Kingdom similarly found that officers with higher levels of organizational commitment were less cynical about the benefits of BWCs, though officer perceptions of internal procedural justice were unrelated to any of the cynicism measures examined (Tankebe & Ariel, 2016).…”