Many of the policies we analyzed were found externally on other websites. Three of those major departments appear to have cameras on the ground, but have not released their policies to the public - Buffalo, Suffolk County, Tulsa.Įven when departments have policies in place, over a third (28 of 68) don’t make them easily and publicly available on their department websites, which hinders robust public debate about how body cameras should be used. The positive policy language highlighted on this site should serve as a model to departments looking to improve their policies.Īs of November 2017, of the 69 “major city” departments in the U.S., 62 now have body worn camera programs with policies in place. At the same time, we are pleased to find examples of strong policy language currently in use for nearly all of our criteria. Departments that have a strong policy in one area often falter in another - every department has room to improve. Our eight criteria examine whether a department:ĭepartments are moving quickly to deploy body-worn cameras, and are experimenting with a wide range of policies across each of the dimensions we examined. In cases where the department has not made its policy public, we use a question mark as a placeholder for future review. A red ex indicates that a policy either does not address the issue, or a policy runs directly against our principles. A yellow circle means that a policy partially satisfies our criteria, and that the department has room for improvement. We awarded a policy a green check only if it fully satisfies our criteria - these are the policies that other departments should consider emulating if they are looking to improve their own. 3įor each factor, we scored department policies on a three level scale.
We believe that these are among the most important factors in determining whether the proper policy safeguards are in place to protect the civil rights of recorded individuals. We evaluated each department policy on eight criteria, derived from our Civil Rights Principles on Body Worn Cameras. If you see anything that looks out of date, please let us know.
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As we become aware of new deployments and policy changes, we will do our best to update our scorecard analysis.
Our analysis is current as of the “last updated” date on each individual department scorecard. The policy landscape is shifting rapidly: Since our initial release, many departments have updated their policies multiple times based on their early experiences, and others have launched new body camera programs and policies. 2 In addition, we included Baton Rouge (LA) and Ferguson (MO) because of the national attention they have received after recent events, and Parker (CO) because of the promising policies they have adopted. 1 We also added departments that have received more than $500,000 in DOJ grant funding to support their camera programs (as indicated by on the scorecard). Since then, we’ve expanded our scorecard to 75 departments, covering all major city police departments in the country that have equipped - or will soon equip - their officers with body cameras. When we initially released our scorecard in November 2015, we examined the body-worn camera policies from 25 local police departments. Our goal is to highlight promising approaches that some departments are taking, and to identify opportunities where departments could improve their policies. This scorecard evaluates the body-worn camera policies currently in place in major police departments across the country. Our principles emphasize that “ithout carefully crafted policy safeguards in place, there is a real risk that these new devices could become instruments of injustice, rather than tools for accountability.” That’s why The Leadership Conference, together with a broad coalition of civil rights, privacy, and media rights groups, developed shared Civil Rights Principles on Body Worn Cameras. Whether these cameras make police more accountable - or simply intensify police surveillance of communities - depends on how the cameras and footage are used. One of the main selling points for these cameras is their potential to provide transparency into some police interactions, and to help protect civil rights, especially in heavily policed communities of color.īut accountability is not automatic. In the wake of high-profile incidents in Ferguson, Staten Island, North Charleston, Baltimore, and elsewhere, law enforcement agencies across the country have rapidly adopted body-worn cameras for their officers.
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