The Quarterly
Summer 2017
The Quarterly


The Quarterly will keep our law enforcement agencies and their partners and supporters informed of developments, trends, and news within the BWC field and encourage involvement in our ongoing activities. The Quarterly  provides the most up-to-date tools and technical assistance materials for your continued success in navigating and implementing a long-lasting, successful BWC program. 

In This Issue: 
  • BWC TTA Team Spotlight
  • BWC TTA Recap
  • The Body-Worn Camera Community Presentation Template 
  • Featured BWC TTA Resources
  • Latest Research on BWCs
  • Special Feature: Body-Worn Camera Training Guide
  • Practices from the Field
  • BWCs in the News
Upcoming Events
  • 2017 IACP Annual Conference & Exposition: Saturday, October 21
The BWC TTA team will present at this year's
upcoming IACP 2017 annual conference. Stay tuned
for more information!
  • 2017 BWC TTA Regional Meeting: BWC Implementation and Training October 5-6, 2017 in Omaha, NE 
The meeting will discuss promising practices in the development and implementation of body-worn camera training as well as provide chiefs and command staff with information regarding how to work with communities, the media, and officers regarding the implementation of BWCs in police agencies of various size and types, as well as the importance of training when implementing a BWC program.

Quicklinks


The BWC TTA Team Spotlight
Michael White, PhD
BWC TTA   Co-Director
Dr. Michael D. White serves as the Co-Director of BWC TTA and is a Professor in the School of Criminol-ogy and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University (ASU). He is Associate Director of ASU’s Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. He is also a senior subject matter Expert for the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Smart Policing Initiative. Dr. White has commented extensively in the media on police issues, especially body-worn cameras, including in Scientific American , the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times , the Washington Post , Time Magazine, NPR, and MSNBC. Dr. White is currently conducting a multi-site randomized controlled trial testing the impact of police officer BWCs in Tempe, Arizona, and Spokane, Washington (funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation). He is one of the primary authors of the U.S. Department of Justice Body-Worn Camera Toolkit, and he authored a U.S. Department of Justice report titled Police Officer Body-Worn Cameras: Assessing the Evidence .
Meet the rest of the BWC TTA Team here.
BWC TTA RECAP
  For a full view of the map and more information about the funded PIP sites, view our website .

Being able to respond quickly to the needs of the BWC TTA Policy and Implementation Programs sites is important for the sustainability and growth of their body-worn camera programs. The BWC TTA team has completed various requests, ranging from peer-to-peer exchanges to assistance with prosecutor collaboration, local workshops, and conference presentations for training and technical assistance (TTA). 



Speakers Bureau
The Body-Worn Camera Speakers Bureau is one part of this comprehensive effort, connecting BWC SMEs with associations and agencies that request a speaker at an organized state, local, or tribal event. To date, the BWC TTA Team has responded to 29 requests for which an SME attended and presented on specific topics related to BWC implementation.
To request a speaker from the BWC Speakers Bureau, please complete the  BWC Speakers Bureau request form




2017 BWC TTA Regional Meeting

BJA and the BWC TTA team will hold a regional meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on October 5-6, 2017. This meeting is intended for command staff (chiefs, deputy chiefs, commanders, captains, etc.) from funded sites and is also open to nonfunded police departments in the Midwest region of the United States. Staff from BJA and ASU and several SMEs involved in the BWC TTA initiative will conduct and facilitate the workshop.


On April 10 and 11, 2017, the BWC TTA Team, in partnership with BJA, held the 2017 Body-Worn Camera Training and Technical Assistance National Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. This meeting was intended for the designated FY 2016 BWC PIP grant points of contact from the funded sites, as well as their key partners in local project implementation (e.g., police executive and command staff, technology and IT representatives, researchers, police agency project "champions", and important partners, such as prosecutors).

For handouts, presentations, and the summary report, continue here .  
The Body-Worn Camera Community Presentation Template 


The BWC community presentation is a series of PowerPoint™ slides covering several issues pertaining to BWCs. The BWC technical assistance team prepared these slides for use by representatives from local jurisdictions who have the need or desire to make presentations on BWCs (e.g., to their police department, local government officials, local justice system agencies, community members or groups). The slides were prepared from several presentations made by members of the BWC TTA team have made, and from the knowledge and experiences of our SMEs. The slides cover the following topics:

  • Research findings    
  • Things to Consider
  • Lessons Learned
  • Emerging Technology
  • Conclusion
  • Concerns
  • Realities
  • Emerging Issues
  • BWC Resources

We suggest that, if you intend to use these slides for a presentation, you review the entire set of slides and determine which ones you intend to use. The slides you use should vary by the type of audience. Some audiences might not be strongly interested in the technical issues; others might not be interested in the research issues. You can delete slides from the set, or remove them from the presentation using the “hide” function.

You may also change the content, and you may add slides to the presentation.
We ask that, if you use these slides, or some modified version of them in a presentation, please let the BWC TTA team know about it by sending the following information to bwctta@cna.org:
  1. Name, title, and organizational affiliation of the presenter(s)
  2. Title of the presentation
  3. Date and location of the presentation
  4. The audience the presentation was made to
  5. A copy of the slide set that you used
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the slides, or if you have any difficulty in using them, please contact us at the same email address.

To view the entire template, click here. 
Featured BWC TTA Resources
‌
In View: Commentary from BWC Experts
 
In View features commentary from BWC experts, including researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. To read In View commentaries, click here .




Webinars
Our monthly webinars have covered topics such as  best practices in the BWC procurement process, the importance of reviewing and refining the use of force policy in BWC programs, recommendations on how to meet the BJA requirements, why these requirements are so important, how PIP agencies are faring in the policy review, how to avoid setbacks, model policy components, data retention and storage options, and how to manage and respond to the media and community after a crisis or high-profile event. 
To view previously conducted webinars, please visit our website and/or YouTube Channel . 



BWC TTA Request

Does your police agency have a technical assistance request? If so, click the link below, and complete and submit the TTA request form. Someone from the BWC TTA Team will be in touch with you shortly!


Note: Your police agency does not have to be have to be a PIP site to request technical assistance.




BWC Policy Review Scorecard

As part of the BJA BWC Implementation Program, a TTA team—composed of members of CNA, ASU, and Justice and Security Strategies, Inc.—has created a BWC Policy Review Scorecard, which assesses the comprehensiveness of an agency’s BWC policy, captures local issues that influence policy (e.g., specific state regulations), and identifies areas for policy enhancement.

The purpose of these instructions is to provide law enforcement agencies with guidance on how to review BWC policies using the scorecard. Interested agencies can access the scorecard  here. Instructions for completing the scorecard can be found  here.
Latest Research on Body-Worn Cameras

The College of Policing, the Metropolitan Police Service, and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime designed and implemented the largest randomized controlled trial of body-worn video (BWV) cameras to date, to test BWV impact on a range of outcomes, including criminal justice outcomes, complaints made against the police, stop and search, officer attitudes, and public experience. This article summarizes the finding of the trial relating to interactions between the police and the public, drawing on analysis of surveys and interviews with officers and a range of administrative data. The article explores how BWV might affect police–public interactions and highlights a number of gaps in the evidence that may benefit from further research.


Given the national interest in equipping police with BWCs, it is important to consider public attitudes concerning the technology. This article draws on the results of a national survey of citizen opinions of BWCs. The survey includes items related to general support for BWCs, opinions on their potential
advantages, and attitudes towards their potential consequences. Results indicate that while there is general support for BWCs on police, opinions vary on the capacity of BWCs to increase transparency of police work, improve trust in police, and foster better police–citizen relationships.

Police BWCs are an increasingly prominent research area in criminal justice. This trend mirrors current practice, with increasing numbers of law enforcement agencies implementing or procuring BWCs. Yet although the evidence on BWCs is substantially long on evidence, it is rather short on theory. Why should BWCs "work" and under what conditions or on whom? This article offers a more robust theoretical composition for the causal mechanisms that can explain the efficacy of BWCs. What sets them apart from other surveillance devices, such as closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs), speed cameras, or bystanders’ mobile cameras? This article introduces the deterrence spectrum, within which BWCs can de-escalate or exacerbate aggressive encounters. It argues that the deterrent effect of BWCs is a function of discretion, whereby strong discretion is inversely linked to a weak deterrent effect that consequently leads to more use of force, and weak discretion is inversely linked to a strong deterrent effect and less forceful police responses. The authors conclude by linking these findings to BWCs discretion policy, as well as the willingness of the agency to adopt an evidence-based policing framework.


Research on BWCs has tended, through evaluations or randomized controlled trials, to look to demonstrate some assumed benefit or consequence of BWC use. This article is concerned with the ways in which police officers use and talk about BWCs and draw on ethnographic research over the past 30 months in one force as it rolled out the use of cameras. BWCs have become a useful tool in the array of those available to officers. At the same time, they come with some downsides. There are pressures to use the cameras in more and more encounters with the public, and although their use may raise the standards of police–citizen interactions, there is also a concern that they constrain discretion. Beyond their immediate use, questions about their evidential value have also emerged. Finally, the article begins to question the model of accountability BWCs present to the public.
Special Feature 
Body-Worn Camera Training Guide

Dr. Charles Katz, Dr. Michael White, and Jessica Herbert

The Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at ASU has developed this facilitator’s guide and accompanying training slides as a resource for law enforcement agencies seeking to develop or modify their BWC training programs. These training materials should be used only as reference documents for agencies developing and deploying BWCs. They are intended to provide guidance and are not designed for yearly continuing training or academy use. Law enforcement agencies should alter the materials as they deem necessary to meet their agency and constituent needs, as well as local and state laws.
 
Supporting educational objectives of knowledge (cognitive), skills (psychomotor), and
attitudes (affective), these training materials serve several purposes. First, the guide
provides police instructors with a standardized BWC training template that includes an
introduction to issues surrounding the development of BWCs, BWC specifications and
operations (which vary by vendor), key issues in policy and practice, and topics related to agency accountability. Second, the guide provides learning objectives for each of these competency areas. Third, the guide and the accompanying slides provide a starting point for in‐classroom and scenario‐based instruction. These materials should be customized by trainers to reflect agency policy, state law, and local ordinances.

These materials have been prepared as a technical assistance tool for the Bureau of Justice Assistance Body‐Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (PIP), for which ASU, along with the CNA Institute for Public Research, and Justice and Security Strategies, Inc., provides training and technical assistance (TTA). They are the product of government, academic, and practitioner expertise in both police training and BWC
programs and mirror key policy and operational areas identified through the BJA PIP TTA program. The Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety acknowledges the support and feedback of the following agencies who provided their training curricula to assist in developing the facilitator’s guide and accompanying slides:

• Denver Police Department (CO)
• New Orleans Police Department (LA)
• Peoria Police Department (AZ)
• Phoenix Police Department (AZ)
• Spokane Police Department (WA)
• Tempe Police Department (AZ)
• Waynesboro Police Department (VA)

We take this opportunity to remind trainers about the importance of keeping training
records (e.g., attendance, test results) in accordance with agency policy and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) requirements. These materials have been prepared by Charles Katz, Michael White, and Jessica Herbert from the ASU Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. The authors would like to thank Lt. Dan Zehnder, Dr. William Sousa, Chief Rick St. John, and Asst. Chief Mike Kutenbach for their helpful comments and assistance on this project.

To view the BWC TTA Training Guide and presentation, click here.  

Practices From the Field: Hillsboro, Oregon 
Body-Worn Camera Program :
Hillsboro, Oregon, Police Department
The Hillsboro Police Department employees will use a federal grant to research and establish a BWC program that enhances police officer interactions with the community, continues to build trust, and demonstrates the department’s commitment to transparency. A video provided by the Hillsboro PD gives the community a firsthand look at how the department plans to implement their BWCs beginning in 2018. 
To view the entire video, please click here.
If your agency would like to be featured in our next Quarterly Newsletter, please contact us .
Body-Worn Cameras in the News
Minneapolis police officers will be required to have their body cameras on when they respond to all calls, as well as in certain other situations, the acting police chief announced Wednesday amid the investigation into an officer's fatal shooting of an Australian woman who called 911 for help. The tighter policy was scheduled to take effect July 29, Acting Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said at a news conference. Officers who violate the policy could face discipline ranging from one-day suspensions to firing, he said.
Eugene Weekly
Eugene Police Department has implemented a mandatory, department-wide $750,000 body camera program for all on-duty officers, but critics wonder if the new program will prevent police misconduct. The 162 camera systems, purchased from Axon (formerly TASER), feature front-facing cameras that will be worn throughout each shift. The cameras are to be turned on for the duration of each police interaction with someone suspected to have committed a crime, all stops for violations of Oregon Vehicle Code, and investigative encounters with suspects, witnesses, complainants and victims. 
The cost of video archiving was the first unforeseen speed bump in the widespread deployment of police BWCs. The challenge of video analysis and redaction is the second. Police agencies looking to demonstrate transparency in their operations by distribution of BWC-generated video are inundated with demands for video clips, but they can’t release the videos as recorded. Before the video is made public, identifying characteristics such as license plates and faces must be redacted to protect the privacy of innocent bystanders.
The Sacramento Police Department has been rolling out BWCs for police officers over the past few months, and it expects to place them on all patrol officers by this fall. Right now, you can find the square-box cameras on officers who don’t have access to in-car cameras, including bike patrols, horse-mounted officers, and motorcycle cops. But as the cameras become more common, police want the public to know they’re being filmed, and what exactly those cameras are catching. Listed in this article are three facts to know about BWCs.
Cameras do not lie and neither do numbers. Memphis police told a city council committee that BWCs on officers have reduced the number of citizen complaints by nearly 40 percent. After a rocky rollout that spurted and stopped, nearly 100 percent of Memphis police officers have BWCs. The technology is working, as demonstrated by the number of complaints against MPD dropping by 39 percent in just one year. 
 
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 This project was supported by Grant No. 2015-DE-BX-K002 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.