Abstract

Body-worn cameras (BWC) have diffused rapidly throughout policing as a means of promoting transparency and accountability. Yet, whether to release BWC footage to the public remains largely up to the discretion of police executives, and we know little about how they interpret and respond to BWC footage – particularly footage involving critical incidents. We asked a nationally representative sample of police executives (N = 476) how supportive they were of legislation that would mandate releasing BWC footage upon request as public information, and presented them with an experimental vignette about BWC capturing one of their officers fatally shooting an [armed/unarmed] [Black/White] suspect. Results indicated inconsistency in executives’ attitudes and decision-making: (1) less than one-third of executives supported such legislation, (2) suspect race and armed/unarmed status shaped how executives felt media would cover the incident and whether they would state publicly that the shooting was justified, and (3) agency size conditioned the effects of armed/unarmed status on executives’ perceptions.

摘要

作为提高透明度和问责制的一种手段，随身携带的摄像机 (BWC) 在整个警务领域迅速普及。然而，是否向公众发布 BWC 镜头在很大程度上取决于警察行政人员的自由裁量权，我们对他们如何解释和回应 BWC 镜头——尤其是涉及重大事件的镜头知之甚少。我们询问了具有全国代表性的警察行政人员样本（N = 476）他们对立法的支持程度，该立法要求根据要求发布 BWC 镜头作为公共信息，并向他们展示了一个关于 BWC 捕捉其中一名警察致命射击 [武装/非武装] [黑/白] 嫌疑人。结果表明高管的态度和决策不一致：（1）不到三分之一的高管支持此类立法，