Nearly Half Of US Police Departments Deploy Body-Worn Cameras - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2018) Body-worn cameras, widely hailed as a strategy to reduce incidents of police shootings of unarmed suspects, were being worn by 47 percent of US state and local law enforcement agencies at the end of 2016, according to a first-of-its kind survey released by the Department of Justice.

"Findings are from the first Body-Worn Camera Supplement to the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, which found that 47 percent of the 15,328 general-purpose state and local law enforcement agencies had acquired BWCs," the Justice Department said in a press release announcing the results of the survey. "In comparison, 69 percent had dashboard cameras and 38 percent had personal audio recorders."

Local police departments and sheriffs' offices reported that the cameras improve officer safety, improve evidence quality, reduce civilian complaints, and reduce agency liability, the release said.

A campaign to introduce BWCs is often tied to the 2014 death of an African American suspect in the town of Ferguson, Missouri, one of the highest-profile incidents in a spate of police shootings during seemingly routine encounters of law enforcement.

A study by Florida International University earlier this month revealed that BWCs have overwhelmingly prompted a new consciousness in law enforcement that includes increased awareness of proper police procedures.

Other results of the study show that body-worn cameras prompted changes in citizens' behaviors and resulted in reduced numbers of complaints against police because people knew that their interactions with officers had been recorded.