Are body-worn cameras effective in decreasing police-involved deaths?: Evidence from U.S. local police departments

Abstract

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are widely recognized as an effective policy tool for enhancing police transparency and accountability in the United States, especially following by the occurrence of several high-profile police-involved deaths against racial minority residents. In this regard, a great deal of studies have examined whether BWC implementation is actually effective in reducing police use of deadly force, but they do not suggest consistent findings on their effectiveness. One possible reason for such inconsistency may be because of a lack of external validity of the studies as most of them conducted field experiment at a single selected police department. In order to fill this gap, the current study examines the effect of BWC implementation on police use of deadly force using the police departments selected from across the United States. The current finding shows significant decrease of the rate of police-involved deaths of black residents after BWC implementation among the sample police departments, implying that BWCs can be useful to enhance the relationship between police and minority communities.