The cause(s) of reduced use of force and complaints following police body-worn camera (BWC) deployment remain unclear, though some argue that BWCs generate a civilizing effect on citizen behavior. This potential effect rests on four pre-conditions: (1) BWC presence and citizen awareness; (2) BWC activation; (3) Escalated citizen behavior or the potential for escalation; (4) Citizen mental capacity for BWC awareness. Prior research has not established the civilizing effect’s existence, or how often these pre-conditions are met; this study aims to fill that gap. Data was collected during systematic social observation (SSO) of 166 encounters between citizens and officers in the Tempe, Arizona Police Department. The results tell a simple story. Two pre-conditions (activation, citizen mental capacity) are consistently met; awareness and escalated behavior are not. Overall, 1.2% of encounters saw all pre-conditions met. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for research on BWCs.

尽管有些人认为BWC对公民的行为产生了文明的影响，但是使用武警和使用警察佩戴的BWC摄像机后投诉减少的原因仍然不清楚。这种潜在影响取决于四个先决条件：（1）《生物武器公约》的存在和公民意识；（2）激活《生物武器公约》；（3）公民行为升级或升级的可能性；（4）公民对BWC意识的心理能力。先前的研究尚未确定文明效应的存在或满足这些前提的频率。这项研究旨在填补这一空白。在对亚利桑那州坦佩市警察局的公民和官员之间的166次相遇进行系统的社会观察（SSO）期间收集了数据。结果讲了一个简单的故事。始终满足两个前提条件（激活，公民的心理能力）；意识和行为升级不是。总体而言，有1.2％的相遇者满足了所有前提条件。本文最后讨论了对生物武器公约研究的意义。