ABSTRACT

Research finds that the public generally supports the use of Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) by police. Much of the support for BWCs is attributed to the technology’s ability to promote police accountability and enhance perceptions of law enforcement transparency, while also providing support to uniformed personnel. However, we do not really know why the public supports BWC usage by police because research on the technology’s potential benefits and related deployment issues is still in its infancy. The few studies that have sought to unravel the predictors of public support for BWC have focused their attention on the benefits the public perceives will accompany the use of BWC to the virtual exclusion of the concerns they may have with the technology. Using survey data collected from 431 residents of a mid-size city in Southern California, this study expands our knowledge of the influences of public support for BWC by including a comprehensive measure of the public’s perceived concerns, including privacy, cost, technology limitations, and the possible manipulation of BWC footage. Findings revealed that public support was significantly influenced by respondents’ perceived benefits and their perceived concerns about BWC, while controlling for demographic characteristics.

摘要

研究发现，公众普遍支持警方使用随身相机 (BWC)。对《生物武器公约》的大部分支持归功于该技术能够促进警察问责和增强执法透明度的认识，同时还为军警人员提供支持。然而，我们真的不知道为什么公众支持警察使用 BWC，因为对该技术的潜在好处和相关部署问题的研究仍处于起步阶段。少数试图阐明公众支持 BWC 的预测因素的研究将注意力集中在公众认为使用 BWC 带来的好处上，而实际上排除了他们可能对该技术的担忧。使用从南加州一个中等城市的 431 名居民收集的调查数据，这项研究扩展了我们对公众支持 BWC 的影响的知识，包括对公众感知的担忧的综合衡量标准，包括隐私、成本、技术限制以及对 BWC 镜头的可能操纵。调查结果显示，在控制人口特征的同时，受访者的感知利益和他们对 BWC 的感知担忧显着影响了公众支持。