Body Worn Camera and Trusting Police Use of Force: Law Thesis Proposal

Body Worn Camera and Trusting Police Use of Force
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* Introduction
The discussion on police body-worn cameras and whether they enhance trust and confidence has been a major debate. The main purpose of introducing the cameras among the police was to enhance confidence and trust that citizens have towards officers with the hope that it could improve police behavior. However, in the wake of many incidents of police officers using excessive force, killing innocent citizens across the US, and also increase in police brutality has led to the cameras not serving the initially intended purposes. In the US, many police departments have suffered the negative impacts of trust and confidence crisis from the public. More often many people have recorded incidents of police brutality and the use of excessive force against innocent citizens like in the recent cases of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor who were killed by law enforcement officers in full glare of the public. This study seeks to examine whether; the use of the body-worn camera enhances the public trust in the police. This study will, therefore, focus on the impact of cameras on student's perception in trusting and having confidence in the use of police force, understanding of the police legitimacy, and perceptions of police when they are wearing the cameras. Other major areas of research in this study include; whether the factor of the body-worn camera creates a positive impact on student perception when interacting with law enforcers and whether students feel more comfortable interacting with officers wearing a camera or not.
* Purpose of research/importance of research
The main purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of the body-worn cameras by law enforcers improves initial interactions when citizens realize that the cameras are on. To achieve this, the researcher will:
* Investigate whether citizens feel more comfortable and trust that the police officers will act accordingly and follow conduct on their behalf when the cameras are on
* Examine whether the factor of the body-worn camera has any positive impacts on student’s perception when interacting with the police
* Investigate the issue of police legitimacy and in regard to wearing the body-worn camera
This study is significant in providing insight into the issue of police brutality and whether the use of body-worn cameras can help in the reduction of the cases of excessive use of force and reduce the killing of innocent people. The study will also help to determine whether the use of the body-worn cameras will help in the enhancement of trust levels between the police and the citizens. This study will also help in opening the future discussion on whether; all police officers should be equipped with cameras as they go to work, and whether it would be mandatory for the cameras to be on for every officer.
* Research question
The major focus of this study is the analysis of the issue of the role of the body-worn cameras by the police in enhancing the levels of confidence among the citizens. The main research questions include;
* Does the factor of the body-worn camera have any positive impacts on student’s perception when interacting with police?
* Will students feel more comfortable when interacting with a police officer who has worn a body-worn camera?
* Does the use of a camera enhance the police legitimacy and help in the creation of positive perceptions of law enforcers?
* Literature and Empirical Research review
There are a number of research studies that have been conducted to address the issue of police body-worn cameras, and how they relate to the enhancement of trust and confidence among students towards the police. According to the study, “Inconsistencies in public opinion of body-worn cameras on police: Transparency, trust, and improved police-citizen relationships” by Sousa et al., (2018), the use of the body-worn cameras has brought mixed reactions from the public regarding the support of the new technology, and the ability of the cameras to enhance the police transparency, enhance a better system of police-citizen relationship and improve the trust that the public has towards law enforcers. Sousa et al., (2018), arguments have also been supported by Goetschel & Peha (2017) in their work, “Police perceptions of body-worn cameras”, where, the two authors argued that the introduction of the body-worn camera (BWC) technology had not been received well by the officers, and therefore, its implementation had faced great resistance from the law enforcers. The use of the BWC technology has helped in the reduction of citizen complaints, in cities like Pittsburgh. However, while the technology was termed to have increased the police working efficiency, its use did not reflect well with other officers, who stated that it lowered levels of trust among each other and citizens.
Use of the body-worn cameras has been one of the major innovations, which were introduced to enhance the relationship between the police and the citizen. Some of the major goals of introducing the cameras were to enhance the levels of transparency and accountability of police officers while they are at work (Smykla et al., 2016). The cameras were also meant to enhance police legitimacy, where people had lost their trust and confidence in the police force. With the increased levels of doubt, many citizens were concerned about the excessive use of force by the police officers captured in the majority of the video footage across communities. The use of the camera footage would help in understanding the underlying problem within the community, and the nature o the events between the police and the community members (Sousa et al., 2018). They were also meant to enhance the levels of civility, where, cameras would help in increasing citizen's level of compliance with the police officer's commands. Footages would be used to assess the levels of compliance and also review the complaints lodged against certain officers during the law enforcement process (Ariel et al., 2016). The intention was to ensure that, the citizens were informed that the encounter process was being recorded which might, therefore; change their behavior towards the officers. The recording process would ensure that some of the issues do not escalate to levels where the officers would be required to use excessive force to deal with the citizens, and therefore, lead to a positive interaction between law enforcers and the public (Lee et al., 2019).
Using the cameras also had the intention of ensuring that there was a better and a quick resolution of issues, especially on complainants lodged by citizens towards individual police officers. The footages would help in determining whether any police officer used excessive force, and the reason why the officer might have acted in the manner that they did (White et al., 2018). The use of the camera footage would, therefore, generate a higher level of confidence and trust in the police officers, as the public will be assured that their issues would be addressed without any problem. The aspect of generating more corroborative evidence from the captured footage is a major focus for many citizens since the footage would provide more evidence on the types of crime the citizens are accused of committing, and therefore, lead to higher numbers of guilty pleas in court proceedings for the crimes committed (Henstock & Ariel, 2017). The body-worn cameras would improve the levels of policing through the necessary training.
Other studies have been conducted to analyze and understand the advantages and the disadvantages of the police body-worn cameras and their relation to the privacy of the citizens and the confidence and the trust they create. Lin (2016), in the text, “Police body has worn cameras and privacy: Retaining benefits while reducing public concerns" argued that the use of the cameras enhanced public confidence in the local and the international policing systems. The author argued that the use of technology helps in reducing the complaints from the citizens and the number of allegations made against officers by the citizens. The arguments by Lin (2016) were supported by Braga et al., (2017) in their text, “The benefits of body-worn cameras: New findings from a randomized controlled trial at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department”, where the authors argued that the use of the body-worn cameras helped in the process of reducing the number of criminal cases since criminals would have early pleas. The authors also argued that the use of the cameras would lead to a reduction in the cases of assault by the police against the citizens.
The conducted literature, however, has many gaps in regard to the use of the cameras, which might increase the cases of mistrust and lack of confidence in the police. One of the major issues is that the cameras might lead to the breach of the privacy protection of the members of the public who have been recorded by the cameras (Gaub et al., 2020). There are no stipulated laws and guidelines on when the police can use the camera by providing clear guidelines regarding the opening and the closing of the cameras. There are no clear ways that have been stipulated, indicating whether the public would be provided with the camera footage. The captured clips might be released to third parties since the devices used might have an encryption mistake, which might compromise the privacy of the citizens. The privacy of the citizens is usually compromised by the use of body cameras, where citizens might be captured when they are not aware.V. Variables
In this study, the major focus shall be on two variables; the dependent and the impendent variables. The independent variable shall be the police body-worn cameras, while the dependent variable shall be the school children and the community. The independent variable, the police cameras, which shall either be turned on or off, will influence the response, the behavior, the actions, trust, and confidence of the dependent variable, the students, and the citizens, towards the police. The study will m...