Changes in Body-Worn Camera Policy Over Time: An Analysis of US Department of Justice–Funded BWC Policy and Implementation Program Law Enforcement Agencies
ASU, CNA, CSU Long Beach
Since 2015, the CNA Corporation and Arizona State University have provided training and technical assistance (TTA) to law enforcement agencies that have received funding for body-worn cameras (BWCs) through the US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance BWC Policy and Implementation Program (BWCPIP). Administrative policy review is a central feature of the TTA provided to the BWCPIP sites. The TTA team developed a policy review process and BWC Policy Review Scorecard to assess the comprehensiveness of BWC policies (https://www.bwctta.com/score-your-bwc-policy-0). Each funded agency participates in a policy review process with the TTA team at the onset of its grant program.
An agency’s BWC policy should change over time; it should not remain static. BWC policy should be reviewed periodically and updated based on changes in local, state, and federal law; technology; and other areas that affect BWC practice. In an effort to characterize the prevalence (how often) and direction (more lenient, stricter, complete removal) of BWC policy changes among BWCPIP sites, we obtained 160 current BWC policies for PIP-funded agencies (current as of September 2023), and for each agency, we compared the current policy to the original policy submitted during the initial grant award (one or more years prior).
We used the BWC Policy Review Scorecard to compare original and current policies on 33 policy issues across nine areas: (1) general issues, (2) video capture—activation, (3) video capture—deactivation, (4) data transfer and download, (5) data storage and retention, (6) BWC viewing, (7) BWC training, (8) public release of BWC video, and (9) policy and program evaluation.
This study is grounded in three research questions:
1. How many of the 160 agencies experienced change in their BWC policy?
2. What areas of BWC policy have changed the most (and least)?
3. How have the policies changed (in what direction: more lenient or stricter)?
Read the full report here.
