The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) launched the Body-Worn Camera (BWC) Policy and Implementation Program (PIP) in FY 2015 to assist law enforcement agencies in enhancing or implementing BWC programs. PIP’s primary goals are to improve public safety, reduce crime, and improve trust between police and the citizens they serve.
In addition to funding over $85 million in grants to 420 police agencies across the country over the past five years, BJA also funded CNA and its partners (Arizona State University, and Justice and Security Strategies) to establish the BWC Training and Technical Assistance (BWC TTA) program. The BWC TTA program documents BWC implementation progress and activities in the funded PIP sites, identifies opportunities to assist local jurisdictions in their implementation efforts, provides such assistance in an efficient and effective manner, and generally supports the successful implementation of BWCs in the PIP sites.
This was the second of two webinars that focused on BWC footage as a form of digital evidence. For this webinar, we examined how BWC footage is used after a critical incident and how footage is used within the criminal justice system. The panel was facilitated by Dr. Shellie Solomon, CEO, Justice and Security Strategies (JSS), and consisted of representatives from a police agency, two prosecutors, a former police executive, and a researcher.
The panelists discussed how footage is used after a critical incident, like an officer-involved shooting, protests, and uses of force, and how prosecutor offices obtain, review, and use footage for its cases.
