Activation of Body-Worn Cameras: Variation by Officer, Over Time, and by Policing Activity

Any intervention or program, including BWCs, will not be effective if it is not appropriately implemented.

“any intervention or programincluding BWCswill not be effective if it is not appropriately implemented (Lawrence et al., 2019).”

Anaheim, California officers activated their BWCs in 54% of required incidents.

“Anaheim, California (54%; Lawrence et al., 2019)”

Boivin et al. (2022) and Lawrence et al. (2019) reported a greater likelihood of BWC activation given certain incident-level and officer characteristics.

“Boivin et al. (2022) and Lawrence et al. (2019) similarly reported a greater likelihood of activation given certain incident-level (e.g., call type) and officer characteristics (e.g., experience, gender).”

Low activation compliance is a form of implementation failure.

“low activation compliance is a form of implementation failure”

Activation rates can vary greatly among officers in a single department, with individual officer rates ranging from 0% to over 70%.

“Lawrence et al. (2019) and White et al. (2018) documented individual officer rates ranging from 0% to over 70%.”

Many law enforcement departments have struggled with officers' failure to activate BWCs.

“As BWCs have spread in law enforcement, many departments have struggled with their officers' failure to activate the devices (Boivin et al., 2022;Hedberg et al., 2017;Lawrence et al., 2019).”

Age and officer experience were unrelated to BWC activation in Anaheim.

“Lawrence et al. (2019) reported that age and officer experience were unrelated to BWC activation in Anaheim (see also Adams et al., 2021).”

Officer self-initiated calls are less likely to result in BWC activation than community member calls-for-service.

“Both Katz and Huff (2023) and Lawrence et al. (2019)found that officer self-initiated calls are less likely to result in BWC activation than a community member call-for-service.”

The selection of 2-week periods for displaying change over time is consistent with prior research that assessed officer BWC activation every 2 weeks.

“The selection of 2-week periods for displaying change over time is consistent with prior research that assessed officer BWC activation every 2 weeks (e.g., Lawrence et al., 2019).”

Prior research in Anaheim found that officer activation rates ranged from 0-72%.

“This is consistent with prior research in Anaheim, which similarly found that officer activation rates ranged from 0-72% (Lawrence et al., 2019).”