Profile Updated:
Summary: This program involves police use of body-worn video in Australia to improve evidence gathering, court processing, and police and citizen behavior. The program is rated Effective for increasing rates of field interviews; Ineffective for increasing convictions, sanction rates, guilty pleas, and for reducing assaults on officers; and Negative Effects for reducing police use of force and citizen complaints against police. (Review the full program description).
| Title | Rating | Details | Outcome Category | Study(ies) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault on officer |
Ineffective | One Study |
There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of assaults on officers on days in which officers wore and used cameras and days they did not wear cameras. |
Crime and Delinquency; Violent offenses ; Assault on officer | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Use of force by police |
Negative Effects | One Study |
The police use-of-force rate was higher on days in which officers wore and used cameras, compared with days they did not wear cameras. This difference was statistically significant. |
Justice Systems or Processes; Use of force by police | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Field interviews |
Effective | One Study |
The rate of field interviews with victims or witnesses was higher on days in which officers wore and used cameras, compared with days they did not wear cameras. This difference was statistically significant. |
Justice Systems or Processes ; Self-initiated activities of officers | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Citizen complaints against police |
Negative Effects | One Study |
Citizen complaints were more frequent on days in which officers wore and used cameras, compared with days they did not wear cameras. This difference was statistically significant. |
Justice Systems or Processes; Citizen complaints | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Guilty pleas |
Ineffective | One Study |
There were no statistically significant differences in rates of guilty pleas from cases on days in which officers wore and used cameras and days they did not wear cameras. |
Justice Systems or Processes ; Disposition outcomes; Guilty rates/pleas | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Convictions |
Ineffective | One Study |
There were no statistically significant differences in conviction rates between days in which officers wore and used cameras and days they did not wear cameras. |
Crime and Delinquency; Multiple crime/offense types/recidivism; Conviction/reconviction | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
| Sanction rates |
Ineffective | One Study |
Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in sanction rates on days in which officers wore and used cameras and days they did not wear cameras, based on multiple measures from the study. |
Justice Systems or Processes; Behaviors of criminal justice personnel towards offenders or the public | Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54. See evaluation methods. |
Program Goals
The use of body-worn video cameras by police is a rapidly emerging area of interest for public policy and police practice (Clare et al. 2021a). Body-worn videos may produce cost and time efficiencies for police, influence police operational decisions, and help prevent problems between citizens and police. A goal of police body-worn video cameras is to enhance police evidence gathering and improve both police and citizen behavior.
Program Components
The Western Australia Police Force is responsible for policing Western Australia’s 2.5 million square kilometers with more than 150 police stations across eight metropolitan and seven regional districts. Over a 6-month period beginning in April 2016, the Police Force began exploring the potential utility of body-worn video cameras (Clare et al. 2019). As of 2022, it has equipped all frontline police officers with body-worn video cameras, and there have been more than 1.4 million evidence-uploads from use of the video cameras (Western Australia Police Force 2022a).
Officers use the body-worn videos under the following guidelines:
- Wear cameras overtly and warn members of the public that they are being recorded, as soon as practicable.
- Ask permission to film in private situations (such as inside homes) and abide by any request to cease filming in such situations.
- Use mobile telephones linked to body-worn videos to record evidence of incidents and interactions with witnesses or victims of crime in the field (Clare et al. 2021a, 46).
Western Australia Police Force officers are directed to record interviews associated with all domestic violence incidents, all incidents involving aggression or violence, all incidents where evidence capture is possible, and all incidents involving use of force. When interviewing victims or witnesses, officers are directed to capture an audio record of interviews using a body-worn video-linked mobile phone, rather than a traditional, signed, written interview (or statement) wherever possible.
Officers are allowed to review their own body-worn video footage, but not that of other officers, unless shared. Non-evidentiary footage is retained for 90 days and then deleted, whereas footage that an officer marks as relevant to an offense or potential offense is stored and retained for 7 years (Clare et al. 2021a, 2021b; Clare et al. 2019).
As of June 2022, the Western Australia Police Force began the rollout of upgraded camera technology that is capable of live-streaming video footage to command centers and other staff (Western Australia Police Force, 2022b).
Study Title: The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia (which is associated with outcomes Assault on officer , Use of force by police, Field interviews , Citizen complaints against police, Guilty pleas , Convictions , and Sanction rates )
Research Design/Sample
Clare and colleagues (2021a) conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of body-worn video on evidence gathering, court outcomes, and police-public behavior during a 6-month period in two Western Australian locations: Perth (the capital) and the regional town of Bunbury. The trial ran from June 13 to December 16, 2016, and involved 498 officers who were 80 percent male, had an average age of 36 years, and had on average 8.3 years of service.
Days were randomly designated by a random number generator as either treatment days (when all participating officers starting the shift wore and used body-worn video) or control days (when no officers used body-worn video). Before 6:00 a.m. each day, all officers, supervisors, and district office hierarchy involved in the trial received emails advising them about the treatment or control status of the day. Any matter occurring between midnight and 6:00 a.m. was included in the treatment or control status of the previous day. During the 6-month period there were 86 treatment days and 101 control days.
Data Collection
Outcome data were obtained from numerous operational datasets. The Incident Management System contained data on criminal and noncriminal incidents. Incident reports recorded individuals who had committed offenses, police actions taken, and other entities such as locations, interviews, and property. Incident Management System data also were used to measure charges laid (including assaults against police, which in Australia may involve on- or off-duty officers), sanction rates, other enforcement activities, and information related to recorded interviews. Criminal Code Infringement Notices contained all notices issued for discretionary, proactive policing action issued to individuals ages 17 and older for prescribed minor criminal offenses such as antisocial behavior or liquor infringements. The Computer-Aided Dispatch database recorded public calls for service and internally generated tasking. These data were used to record participating officers’ attendance at calls for service, and to identify opportunities to record body-worn video, for a total of incidents that could have led to officers’ generating recordings on treatment days. All court records with an offense date within the scope of the trial where the arresting officer’s unit was participating in the trial were examined. The use-of-force dataset contained officer-generated use-of-force reports in line with Operational Safety and Tactical Training Unit policy; use of force included drawing and pointing or discharging a taser or firearm, or use of baton, handcuffs, police dog/horse, other weapons, or empty-hand tactics that resulted in bodily injury. Finally, Professional Standards Complaints included anonymized data about complaints against police, excluding low-level complaints that may have been resolved at the police station level without reporting to the Professional Standards Division.
Outcome Measures
Outcomes included field interview rates (per 1,000 Computer-Aided Dispatch jobs), sanction rates (which included measures of Criminal Code Infringement Notices and police-issued restraining orders), court processes (guilty pleas and conviction rates), police use of force, assaults against police, and citizen complaints against police.
Statistical Analysis
A range of parametric and nonparametric tests were conducted to examine the effect of body-worn videos on the outcomes of interest. Subgroup analysis was conducted with officers who had high engagement with the trial, compared with officers who had low engagement with the trial.
Citation: Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021a. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:43–54.
This study is a high-quality randomized controlled trial.
The following outcomes were considered in the scored studies, but CrimeSolutions Study Reviewers determined the evidence was insufficient for a rating to be assigned:
- Move-on notices
- Criminal charges
Subgroup Analysis
Clare and colleagues (2021a) examined outcome differences for officers who had either high engagement (n = 70) or low engagement (n = 70) with the use of body-worn video cameras. There were no statistically significant differences between high- and low-engagement officers on Criminal Code Infringement Notices issued on treatment days. High-engagement officers had a statistically significantly higher rate of field interviews, criminal charges, restraining orders, and move-on notices issued on treatment days, compared with low-engagement officers on treatment days.
These sources were used in the development of the program profile:
Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, and Geoffrey C. Barnes. 2021b. “The Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Body-Worn Video in Australia: Technical Appendix.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 17:A1–16.
Clare, Joseph, Darren Henstock, Christine McComb, Roy Newland, Geoffrey C. Barnes, Murray Lee, and Emmeline Taylor. 2019. “Police, Public, and Arrestee Perceptions of Body-Worn Video: A Single Jurisdictional Multiple-Perspective Analysis.” Criminal Justice Review 44(3):304–21.
Western Australia Police Force. 2022a. 2022 Annual Report. East Perth, Australia.
Western Australia Police Force. 2022b. Body-Worn Cameras’ Live-Streaming Capability. East Perth, Australia, June 17, 2022.
Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:
This practice involves the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement. The aim of this practice is to record interactions from an officer’s point of view to improve accountability and positively affect police officer behavior. The practice is rated Ineffective for its effects on officer use of force, officer injuries, officer-initiated calls for service, traffic stops, field interviews, and arrest incidents.
Evidence Ratings for Outcomes
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Justice Systems or Processes - Use of force |
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Crime & Delinquency - Assault on officer/officer injuries/resistance |
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Crime & Delinquency - Multiple crime/offense types |
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Justice Systems or Processes - Officer-initiated calls for service |
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Crime & Delinquency - Traffic stops/traffic tickets |
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Justice Systems or Processes - Field interviews/stop and frisk |
Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this program:
This intervention involves officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to increase citizens’ intentions to comply with police and improve their perceptions of police during traffic stops. The program is rated Promising. Drivers who encountered officers with cameras had statistically significant increases in both compliance and cooperation with officers and improved perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy, compared with drivers who encountered officers not wearing cameras.
This involves police officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to improve the civility of their interactions with citizens. The program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in citizen complaints against police and police use-of-force reports for officers who wore cameras, compared with those who did not, and statistically significant reductions in complaints against control officers in the treatment districts, compared with officers in the untreated districts.
This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record their interactions with civilians. The program is rated Ineffective. Camera use had no statistically significant effects on officers’ total number of proactive activities, specifically on the number of traffic stops or business checks, nor on arrests, citizen complaints, and use-of-force incidents. Officers with cameras conducted statistically significantly fewer subject stops, and statistically significantly more park and walks.
This program involves law enforcement’s use of cameras to record interactions with civilians to reduce citizen fatalities. The program is rated Promising. Agencies that acquired cameras had statistically significant decreases in fatal police–citizen encounters after three years, compared with agencies that did not acquire cameras. There were no statistically significant differences in fatal encounters between a reduced set of agencies with cameras and matched agencies without cameras.
This program equips police with body cameras to record encounters with civilians. The program is rated Ineffective. Camera use had no statistically significant effects on number of arrests, arrests with force, and summonses issued after 1 year. Officers wearing cameras had statistically significant reductions in complaints filed against them and made more stop reports. Camera use resulted in a statistically significantly reduced likelihood of lawful stops and frisks but fewer subjects searched.
This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record contacts with civilians during intimate-partner violence incidents. The program is rated Promising. Camera use was statistically significantly more likely to result in arrests, charges filed, cases furthered, and both guilty pleas and verdicts. There was no statistically significant difference in sentence length. However, there was a statistically significantly greater reduction in case processing time in cases not involving a camera.
Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) are designed to improve policing and the perceived legitimacy of the police and legal institutions. The program is rated Ineffective There were no statistically significant differences in police use of force, number of citizen complaints, or number of arrests for disorderly conduct for police officers who wore BWCs, compared with officers who did not wear BWCs.
Police body-worn cameras are used to record police encounters with citizens during officers’ shifts in Birmingham South. Officers were instructed to begin recording as soon as they left their vehicles and to conclude recording once the situation was resolved. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in officers’ use of force and citizen injury, but no statistically significant reduction in officer injury.
This is a police body-worm camera intervention that has been implemented across eight police departments in the United States and United Kingdom. The program equips officers with continuously recording body-worn cameras to record police and citizen interactions. The program is rated Ineffective. There was no significant effect on police use of force, and use of cameras was associated with a statistically significant increase in assaults against officers.
This program equips individual police officers in Rialto, Calif., with body-worn cameras to record police encounters during shifts. The program aims to reduce use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints by increasing mutual accountability. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in police use-of-force, but no statistically significant difference in citizens’ complaints.
This program was originally rated Ineffective. It has been re-reviewed based on the change in the program rating instrument. Under the new instrument, CrimeSolutions now rates individual program outcomes and no longer assigns an overall rating.
Rating Process
Program Status
This program is Active.