The National Institute of Justice says the use of body-worn cameras is promising for reducing citizen fatalities.
NIJ found that law enforcement agencies that acquired body-worn cameras to record interactions with civilians had statistically significant decreases in fatal police-citizen encounters after three years, compared with agencies that did not acquire cameras. There were no statistically significant differences in fatal encounters between a reduced set of agencies with cameras and matched agencies without cameras.
Fatal encounters are defined as police contacts with the public in which police actions plausibly contribute to the death of the subject. These can involve a variety of causes, including the use of less-lethal force, medical emergencies, and mental health issues, although they predominantly involve the police shooting of suspects.
In recent years, efforts have been made to strengthen police organizational policies to limit police officers’ use of lethal force. Implementation of body-worn cameras has been a part of this effort.