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Police body cameras 'cut complaints against officers'

Darat

Lackey
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Darat
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Really interesting research into effects of police wearing body cameras:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37502136

Top line:

The Cambridge University study showed complaints by members of the public against officers fell by 93% over 12 months compared with the year before.

...snip...

Dr Ariel, who is based at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, said: "I cannot think of any [other] single intervention in the history of policing that dramatically changed the way that officers behave, the way that suspects behave, and the way they interact with each other."

...snip...

He said the results indicated both police and the public were adjusting their behaviour.
...snip...
Click to expand...

Report can be found here: http://cjb.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/21/0093854816668218.full.pdf+html
 
It makes perfect sense thought. as long as there aren't too many accidental times when they fail to record...
 
...or riots and arson and looting even when the cameras show that the police shooting was justified.
 
"He said the results indicated both police and the public were adjusting their behaviour."

If the public could see the body camera then possibly, but I suspect the real adjustment in behaviour was the police.
 
This is not news. I think it came up in the Mike Brown/Ferguson thread.
 
Skeptical Greg said:
Totally expected...

Adjustment from both sides..
Click to expand...
Or, people weren't filing as many false complaints as some others thought they were. Under that interpretation, there would be virtually no adjustment from the civilian side and the adjustment is entirely about police officers not acting like scumbags when they know there's going to be a video record of them doing so.
 
It's quantum! By observing things we changed them, so now we'll never know what they were like when we weren't observing them! Also when I close my eyes the entire universe plunges into darkness.
 
Babbylonian said:
Or, people weren't filing as many false complaints as some others thought they were. Under that interpretation, there would be virtually no adjustment from the civilian side and the adjustment is entirely about police officers not acting like scumbags when they know there's going to be a video record of them doing so.
Click to expand...
My friends in law enforcement have advised me that using body cameras has made it possible to dismiss dozes of fraudulent complaints against the officers in the last three years, in our county. IA and the DA are able to see what's on the camera and use that evidence to identify where the citizen has been not quite truthful in registering the complaint.

It has also had an influence on the cops using less profanity, since they are aware that their supervisors and IA have access to all of that.

Not sure how it's working out in other municipalities.
 
Many years ago (20 or so) I attended a "risk management" seminar for police officers regarding "use of force" issues.
The attorney that gave the seminar recommended that officers carry a small voice-recorder at all times and record EVERY "transaction" with citizens during the shift. This was long before the first body cameras became available.
Even then, with the limited recording facilities available (dash cams and personal audio), it was being shown that numbers of false complaints against officers were being proved false.
 
One further oddity:

One of the odd findings from the research was that even among "control" groups, where officers were sent out without cameras attached, complaints plummeted.
Dr Ariel said that was because good practice and changes in policing culture were becoming embedded across each force as it adapted to the use of cameras - a phenomenon he described as "contagious accountability".
Click to expand...
 
I've seen instances where a minor problem immediately escalates because the first arriving officer addresses the subject as, "Hey moron!"

I've seen instances where someone acting hostile and confrontational starts calming down when the first arriving officer addresses them as, "Hey Sir!"
 
It's been frequently shown that the type of officer you'd describe as a "people person" is generally able to approach and speak to people without immediately causing a confrontation.

Of course, you are always going to get a percentage of folks who are hostile, deranged, or whatever, but even these people can often be mollified with a good approach.

On the other hand, we all know there are people who seem to turn every contact into a confrontation and who just seem naturally inclined, by demeanor or personality, to turn people hostile.

One of the big morning news shows did a segment on an LAPD "motor" officer who's a 20-year veteran. He's literally written thousands of citations. No complaints. Not one in 20 years... Guy just has a naturally businesslike and disarming manner.
That's what you need.

Too many people in my profession have this almost-organic need to be "in charge". "I demand respect!" is something you hear a lot. Of course, you can translate "respect" into "fear".

This is reinforced by the police culture in many areas. "Don't show weakness"....That sort of thing.

There are all sorts of training opportunities for this sort of thing; the "verbal judo" course has been around for over 20 years. Currently, we have training courses to help guard against "implicit bias" when talking to people.... The almost-subliminal fear or distrust of certain ethnic groups which often comes across in body language and demeanor.

It's an ongoing struggle.
 
Bikewer said:
..Too many people in my profession have this almost-organic need to be "in charge". "I demand respect!" is something you hear a lot. Of course, you can translate "respect" into "fear". This is reinforced by the police culture in many areas. "Don't show weakness"....That sort of thing...
Click to expand...

I have a very good friend who is retired after thirty years as a uniformed patrol officer in New York. He got very few complaints over his career and many commendations and we've talked about this. One thing he told me years ago that has always stuck with me. For the most part, he warned me, when a cop orders you to do something it is usually not a good idea to argue with them even when it's pretty plain the cop is in the wrong. He told me, "They train you to never back down. When you order someone to do something you have to make it stick or you lose control of the situation."

NYPD is trying to change 'the culture.' They want officers, at least uniformed patrol officers, to start thinking of themselves as public safety officers not just law enforcers. To think of the public as "our customers" and "we need to be customer-friendly." Every officer has to take annual training courses and from what I understand this has not gone over as badly as you might expect. Many officers do want to change the police/public dynamic.

This is from a brief item in The New Yorker magazine:
[NY City police commissioner] Bill Bratton has no illusions that a three-day-a-year class is an antidote for insensitivity or for the biases that afflict some officers in New York and other cities. Still, he noted, most of the complaints that citizens have about the police “are about language: ‘An officer swore at me.’ ‘He treated me disrespectfully.’ ” Bratton went on, “A lot of the training that we’re doing with our officers” is centered “on an officer’s approach to people and treating them respectfully. To see if we can get rid of the F-word. We joke that if we got rid of three, four words from a cop’s vocabulary we’d solve half the problem.” Link
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
It works like this:

Member of the public attacks police officer and gets hurt.
MOP says: "I want to lodge a formal complaint"
video is screened for MOP
MOP: "Uh, nevermind."

Saves a fortune in false complaints from muppets.
 
novaphile said:
It works like this:

Member of the public attacks police officer and gets hurt.
MOP says: "I want to lodge a formal complaint"
video is screened for MOP
MOP: "Uh, nevermind."

Saves a fortune in false complaints from muppets.
Click to expand...

In some cases, in some the cop isn't sure he/she turned the camera off so he doesn't escalate the situation.
 
Yeah, it makes you wonder a bit when a certain group of officers have a vastly higher rate of body camera malfunctions than the other officers, particularly when it correlates tightly with the group of officers with the highest number of use of force complaints. Or the ones who filed a lawsuit against the Dept. of Justice plan to fix said problem.
 
novaphile said:
It works like this:

Member of the public attacks police officer and gets hurt.
MOP says: "I want to lodge a formal complaint"
video is screened for MOP
MOP: "Uh, nevermind."

Saves a fortune in false complaints from muppets.
Click to expand...

And when the video does not exonerate the cops it will be the result of a convenient camera failure. Win win really.
 
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