Videos Don’t Lie: African Americans’ Support for Body-Worn Cameras

Abstract

In light of growing concern regarding the policing of inner-city communities—including questionable incidents of use of force—equipping officers with body-worn cameras (BWCs) has emerged as a salient proposal for reform. Based on a national-level survey of African Americans (n = 1,000), this project shows that wide consensus exists among Black citizens in favor of BWCs. Since ostensibly “videos don’t lie,” implementing camera technology thus may be a means to increase police legitimacy. Importantly, the analysis also reveals that African Americans support a broad range of reforms to improve inner-city policing, of which BWCs are only one. Finally, the survey included a subset of 45 Black police officers. These officers also supported BWCs and most other proposed reforms but at a level that was lower and less intense than African American members of the public.

Keywords

body-worn cameras police reform race and public opinion

In the United States, police conflict with minority citizens has a long and disquieting history. As Butler (2017) notes, “There has never, not for one minute in American history, been peace between black people and the police” (p. 2). In recent decades, this conflict has been exacerbated by proactive policing tactics aimed at reducing both violent and drug-related crimes, as well as disorder in inner-city neighborhoods (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Although evidence exists demonstrating the effectiveness of enforcement tactics such as broken windows policing, zero-tolerance policing, hot spots policing, and focused deterrence in reducing crime (Braga, Weisburd, & Turchan, 2018; Zimring, 2012; see also Weisburd & Braga, 2006), the widespread implementation of these strategies has come with a cost, borne disproportionately by communities of color. Thus, many innocent African Americans have been stopped by the police (Gelman, Fagan, & Kiss, 2007). More troubling, proactive police practices have, on occasion, escalated to involve excessive uses of force, including police killings of unarmed Black citizens (Zimring, 2017).

A key response to these developments has been the Black Lives Matter Movement and, more generally, the questioning of police legitimacy (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Thought to involve the perceived obligation to obey and support authorities, legitimacy provides an essential means to secure citizen cooperation and compliance with the police and, more broadly, the law (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 1990). Importantly, without such voluntary cooperation and compliance from citizens, police resources are quickly overwhelmed and cannot adequately maintain order (Tyler, 2004).

Recently, a particular reform strategy has gained increasing attention as a means to improve police transparency and build legitimacy: requiring the police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with citizens (Nunes, 2015; President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015). Likely spurred by the advent of cell phones allowing for the repeated recording of officers’ use of force against minority citizens, video recordings have proven important in the documentation of police practice (Simonson, 2016; Wasserman, 2018). In some cases, these videos have contradicted police accounts of citizen encounters, suggesting that, without such recordings, an incomplete, if not untruthful, description of an incident would be accepted as fact.

The assertion that police may be deceptive about their patterns and practices of using force is not entirely baseless. As one example, following the death of Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, the officer involved attempted to justify his use of lethal force by falsely suggesting that Scott had stolen his Taser (Schmidt & Apuzzo, 2015). Research has also documented instances of overt and systematic deception exercised by police officers when adhering to an organizational code of silence that forbids the formal acknowledgment or disclosure of officer corruption or misconduct (Alpert, Nobel, & Rojek, 2015; Chin & Wells, 1997; The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption, 1994; Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991; The Knapp Commission, 1973; Patton, 1993; Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993). The observation that officers are prone to abide by this “blue wall of silence” could support citizens’ belief that videos do not lie, but police officers might.

In this context, the current project uses a large national-level sample of African Americans (n = 1,000) to examine the extent to which this population endorses equipping police officers with body-worn cameras (BWCs) to increase “the accountability of the officers and the transparency of the police department” within inner-city neighborhoods. The use of a large sample of African Americans has the advantage of probing whether any key within-group cleavages in support for BWCs exist. Another fortuitous aspect of the sampling strategy is that 45 of the respondents were police officers. The small sample size means that findings should be viewed with caution. Still, the opportunity presents itself to assess whether African American officers and the public share similar or divergent views regarding BWCs.

In situating the current study in a context of police legitimacy, it should be noted that the primary question of interest in this study was specific in asking about support for police use of BWCs for the purposes of police accountability and transparency. We do not probe alternative reasons for African Americans’ support of BWCs. Furthermore, because we lack a comparison sample of Whites, we cannot establish whether Black citizens’ endorsement of cameras is more intense and for different reasons (e.g., used to identify police misconduct as opposed to exonerate officers when force is used). Still, as will be seen, the findings of this study are suggestive of substantial African American support for this initiative and thus have clear implications relevant to police legitimacy. In the least, they raise issues to be addressed with future inquiry.

Finally, the issue of BWCs is considered within a broader context of other reform measures proposed to address inner-city policing problems—diversity training, community policing, citizen review boards, and hiring more African American officers. Of interest is whether African Americans show special support to BWCs or favor a range of initiatives. As a prelude to the analyses, we first consider the context that has led to calls for reforms to address inner-city policing. The discussion then moves to issues central to the use of BWCs within police agencies. This section includes a brief review of goals and policy issues and an examination of the support for camera technology among the public and police officers, with a special focus on race.

Race, Community, and Police Reform

Over the past several decades, policing has been marked by substantial innovation. Faced with a confluence of political, legal, and social controversies in American society from the 1960s to the 1980s, police, policymakers, and scholars began to rethink police methods for addressing crime and improving police–community relationships (National Research Council, 2004; Weisburd & Braga, 2006). A key product of these efforts was the proactive policing movement, which emphasizes the mobilization of resources through police initiative to target the underlying causes of crime and disorder (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Beginning in the 1990s, proactive policing approaches—such as order maintenance policing, hot spots policing, and focused deterrence strategies—were used heavily in the inner-city areas across the United States that had been plagued with high rates of crime for decades.

Although the reduction in crime during this era can be attributed, in part, to these policing strategies (Eck & Maguire, 2000; Engel & Eck, 2015; Zimring, 2007), the methods of many proactive policing tactics have been found to have significant collateral consequences. Specifically, research notes that poor, Black Americans are often the most affected by police strategies targeting violence and disorder in inner cities (Engel, Smith, & Cullen, 2012; Gelman et al., 2007; Rosenbaum, 2006; Taylor, 2006; Weitzer, 2000). The use of these tactics often translates into more frequent or more intrusive, police-initiated contacts with Black citizens (Butler, 2017; Hayes, 2017; Johnson, Wilson, Maguire, & Lowrey-Kinberg, 2017; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018; Tyler, Jackson, & Mentovich, 2015). In many cases, police reliance on these strategies has resulted in their alienation from the inner-city communities they serve.

In recent years, various remedies have been proposed to improve police–minority relations and perceptions of police legitimacy among minority citizens—for example, diversity training, community policing, citizen review boards, and hiring more Black officers. However, research provides limited evidence of the effectiveness of such remedies in making improvements in these areas (Armacost, 2003; Blakemore, Barlow, & Padgett, 1995; Brunson & Gau, 2015; Decker & Smith, 1980; Gill, Weisburd, Telep, Vitter, & Bennett, 2014; Ivkovic, 2014; National Research Council, 2004; Rowe & Garland, 2003, 2013; Smith & Holmes, 2003; Weitzer & Tuch, 2004). Still, beyond their complex substantive effects, these reforms can be significant symbolically, communicating to citizens that police seek to address their concerns. As such, the implementation of BWCs may be viewed as part of a broader movement attempting to improve police–community relations. Whatever the nature of their significance, these reform efforts, including BWCs, appear to be widely supported by African American citizens (see, e.g., Finn, 2001; Forman, 2017; Weitzer & Tuch, 2004). What remains uncertain is the homogeneity or heterogeneity of support from African Americans for the use of BWCs as a reform effort, which this study intends to examine.

BWCs as a Police Reform

Goals and Policy Issues

Since the emergence of law enforcement interest in the use of BWCs in the early 2000s, many police agencies have devoted resources to make the use of this technology a standard police practice; many others are considering doing so (Lafayette Group, 2015; Miller, Toliver, & Police Executive Research Forum, 2014; Police and Crime Standards Directorate, 2007). The goals of law enforcement agencies in the adoption of BWCs are typically multifaceted. For example, the adoption of BWCs may be aimed to increase transparency and accountability of officers and the department, reduce citizen complaints, reduce citizen assaults on officers, and/or assist in officer report writing, the gathering of evidence, or the intradepartmental training of officers (ManTech Advanced Systems International, 2012; President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015; White, 2014).

Although these intended outcomes are desirable, research evidence suggests that the impact of officers wearing body cameras may be complex. Take, for example, the impact of BWCs on citizen complaints, where research largely finds significant reductions (Ariel, Farrar, & Sutherland, 2015; Ariel et al., 2016a; Ellis, Jenkins, & Smith, 2015; Farrar, 2013; Fouche, 2014; Grossmith et al., 2015; Hedberg, Katz, & Choate, 2016; Jennings, Lynch, & Fridell, 2015; Katz et al., 2014; ODS Consulting, 2011; Pelfrey & Keener, 2016). Still, one study found no change in the number of complaints (Edmonton Police Service, 2015). Of particular concern among the available findings is the mixed evidence regarding the influence of BWCs on citizen assaults against officers (see Ariel et al., 2016c; Ellis et al., 2015; Henstock, 2015; ODS Consulting, 2011). Mixed findings have also been produced in the examination of the influence of BWCs on officer use of force in police–citizen encounters. Specifically, although a majority of studies show a decrease in officer use of force when BWCs are used (Ariel et al., 2015; Farrar, 2013, Henstock, 2015; Jennings et al., 2015), some studies report no change (Ariel et al., 2016c), while others find an increase in officer use of force (Ariel et al., 2016b).

Public Support for BWCs

Although the effectiveness of police use of BWCs is a central concern, the extent to which the use of BWCs is embraced by the citizenry is another key policy consideration. Does this reform reflect the democratic will of the people including those who are most likely to experience police contact? In general, studies in the United States and from around the world reveal that public support for the use of BWCs is extensive, ranging between 76% and 92% (Edmonton Police Service, 2015; Ellis et al., 2015; Grossmith et al., 2015; ODS Consulting, 2011; Paulsen, 2016; Sousa, Miethe, & Sakiyama, 2017; White, Todak, & Gaub, 2017). Notably, such support for the use of BWCs remains high (80%) among citizens who were detained by officers using BWCs (Taylor, Lee, Willis, & Gannoni, 2017) and among citizens who were not aware that officers were using BWCs in their specific encounter (White et al., 2017). At least with regard to the concept of equipping officers with cameras, the use of BWCs is a popular idea.

Given the focus of the current project, a key issue is how race shapes support for this policy reform. Although the research is not voluminous, it tends to show that African Americans endorse BWCs as much as, if not more than, their White counterparts. For example, a poll by the Pew Research Center (2014) reported that 90% of Blacks and 86% of Whites believed the “more police officers wearing body cameras to record interactions would be…a good idea.” In an evaluation of the perceptions of residents in Prince George’s County, MD, Black, Latino, and Asian citizens were found to have stronger, positive feelings about BWCs (68.9%, 72.7%, and 66.7%, respectively) when compared to White citizens (58.8%; Ray, Marsh, & Powelson, 2017). This difference in attitudes by race and ethnicity is corroborated in a nationwide survey of citizens—albeit in a sample that contained only 40 African Americans (Sousa et al., 2017). In this study, Black citizens were found to be over 3 times more likely to endorse support for requiring BWCs than Whites (Sousa et al., 2017).

Accompanying these findings of support, research has begun to examine public perceptions of the advantages and consequences related to police use of BWCs. Once again, racial variation is found. Specifically, it appears that White citizens are more likely than their Black counterparts to indicate their belief that BWCs will improve police–community relations (Ray et al., 2017; Sousa et al., 2017). Meanwhile, evidence surrounding citizens’ belief that BWCs will increase police transparency is mixed—with Black citizens being cited as having both higher and lower beliefs than Whites (Ray et al., 2017; Sousa et al., 2017). Further, Crow, Snyder, Crichlow, and Smykla’s (2017) survey of residents in two Florida counties suggests that the relationship of race (and other demographics) to support for cameras, though generally positive, may be complex. Their study includes a scale encompassing multiple intended outcomes of BWCs’ use (i.e., assistance in collection of quality evidence, improved views of police legitimacy, improved behavior of citizens/officers in encounters). Relevant to our concerns, they found that the effect of race was indirect, with non-Whites perceiving “less benefit of BWCs” (Crow, Snyder, Crichlow, & Smykla, 2017, p. 16).

It is possible that citizens’ attitudes and expectations concerning police use of BWCs may shape their broader perceptions of the police and specific reactions to high-profile police–citizen encounters. Specifically, given the documented support for police use of BWCs, a police agency’s failure to adopt this technology could make that agency vulnerable to community-wide accusations of covering up police misconduct. For example, the unrecorded lethal confrontation between a police officer and an unarmed Black man in Ferguson, MO, on August 9, 2014, created significant unrest within the Ferguson community and exacerbated distrust of police (Fan, 2017; Hayes, 2017; Sparrow, 2016). Fueled by confusion regarding the events that ultimately led to the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the city of Ferguson experienced violent protests pitting the Ferguson Police Department against the largely Black community (Fan, 2017; Hayes, 2017; Sparrow, 2016). It is important to note, however, that even those police agencies using this technology may not be immune to adverse community perceptions. Indeed, similar effects could be realized in incidents involving the absence of recorded footage (e.g., camera malfunction or turned off) or the prohibited or limited release of recorded footage (Fan, 2017). Despite this possibility, the use of BWCs appears to be a crucial step in meeting community expectations of police transparency and accountability.

Notably, the use of camera technology is not an isolated practice but rather exists within a broader context of police reforms aimed at improving law enforcement. Examining citizens’ preferences, specifically those of African Americans, may reveal which reforms they view as viable options to improve policing in these communities. If other reform efforts (e.g., diversity training, community policing, citizen review boards, hiring more Black officers) are preferred over the adoption of cameras, the addition of BWCs may prove marginally effective or even fruitless in this endeavor. Furthermore, a preference for other reform efforts may suggest skepticism about the use of BWCs as a means of reform. However, if BWCs are most strongly preferred, this fact may speak to the potential power of this reform to enhance public perceptions of police legitimacy.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency for studies to consider race as a control variable rather than to explore whether variation in views toward BWCs and other reforms exists within the African American community. One possibility is that there is a broad consensus in police-related attitudes among Black citizens; another is that such attitudes vary by demographics, political ideology, and living in an inner-city neighborhood. If variation in preferences of reform does exist, these differences may shape differential citizen reaction to strategies being implemented to improve policing.

Police Officers’ Support for BWCs

It is also important to consider the perceptions of the police regarding the use of BWCs. Research findings suggest that officers generally support the adoption of this camera technology (Ellis et al., 2015; Morin, Parker, Stepler, & Mercer, 2017) but to a lesser degree than citizens (Morin et al., 2017). Evidence also suggests that officers’ level of endorsement varies and, at times, is oppositional (Gaub, Choate, Todak, Katz, & White, 2016). For example, support for BWCs appears to differ between frontline officers (more supportive) and nonfrontline officers (less supportive; Ellis et al., 2015) as well as among command staff (both high and low support; Smykla, Crow, Crichlow, & Snyder, 2016). Additionally, like citizens, officers’ beliefs about the impact of BWCs on factors such as public trust, citizen cooperation, and citizen complaints are inconsistent within and between agencies (Ellis et al., 2015; Gaub et al., 2016; Gramagila & Phillips, 2018). However, compared to citizens, officers appear more skeptical about the impact of BWCs on citizen cooperation and officer behavior (Morin et al., 2017).

Research examining the influence of race on officers’ support for the adoption of BWCs is less prevalent than research examining the impact of citizens’ race. However, findings suggest that White and non-White officers equally support the adoption of BWCs (Jennings, Fridell, & Lynch, 2014). In contrast, it appears that Black officers more frequently believe that the adoption of BWCs could influence the behavior of other officers (Gramlich, 2017). Although these findings are informative, further research exploring how African American officers view police reform may generally be useful. Specifically, these officers’ preferences for particular reforms may reflect that of other African American citizens. Alternatively, these officers’ preferences may be tempered by their occupational and institutional knowledge as part of the police force. Having been part of the policing institution, they may recognize the ceremonial nature of many changes and be skeptical of the impact of potential reforms (Crank & Langworthy, 1992). Additionally, the preference for one reform measure over another may suggest, from the officer perspective, which reforms may best improve policing in inner-city communities. Preference for a reform may also align with officer “buy-in” for such reform, which is “critically important to the success of most reform efforts” (Rosenbaum & McCarty, 2017, p. 72).

Research Strategy

Given these considerations, our research strategy involves the use of a large national sample (n = 1,000) of African Americans to explore the extent to which they endorse BWCs as a means of police reform in inner-city neighborhoods. We examine overall support for BWCs, compare support for BWCs versus other police reforms, explore whether such opinions vary among Black citizens, and assess how citizen–officer views overlap and vary. The study’s findings have potential implications for public support for the implementation of BWCs in inner-city communities and, more broadly, for police to enhance their legitimacy in an era where a bright spotlight is being focused on the quality of policing minority communities.

Method

Sample

The data for this study are drawn from a national survey designed by the research team and conducted from June 8 to 19, 2017, by YouGov America, Inc., an opt-in Internet panel survey company. YouGov (formerly polimetrix) is an international survey research company with a pool of approximately 1.8 million U.S. residents who have agreed to participate in online surveys in exchange for small incentives (e.g., small charitable donation on their behalf, sweepstake entry for a small prize, small cash payment; YouGov, 2016). Using this pool, YouGov conducts a three-phase sampling strategy designed to generate a nationally representative sample of target populations (Rivers, 2006). This strategy includes (1) constructing a pseudo sampling frame using high-quality probability surveys and large-scale, commercially available databases (e.g., lists of registered voters), (2) matching YouGov panel members to this frame based on several demographic and behavioral variables, and (3) adjusting biases in the sample through propensity score weighting (Rivers, 2006; for full discussion of YouGov methodology, see Thielo, 2017). While the YouGov panel has been employed widely across academic disciplines (i.e., public health, sociology, psychology, medicine), it has been used most prominently in political science, appearing in the discipline’s top-tier journals such as Public Opinion Quarterly (e.g., Jessee & Malhotra, 2013; Johnston, Hillygus, & Bartels, 2014), American Journal of Political Science (e.g., Boudreau & Mackenzie, 2014; Tesler, 2012), and Journal of Politics (Gerber, Huber, Doherty, & Dowling, 2011). More recently, however, public attitude studies using samples constructed from YouGov’s panel have appeared in criminal justice/criminology journals such as Criminal Justice Policy Review (Harris & Cudmore, 2016) and Feminist Criminology (Pickett, 2016).

In the present study, the pseudo sampling frame was constructed from a random sample of adults who participated in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey. YouGov used simple random sampling with selection within strata by weighted sampling with replacements. Data on voter registration status and turnout (retrieved from the November 2010 Current Population Survey) and interest in politics and party identification (retrieved from the 2007 Pew Religious Life Survey) were matched to this frame. YouGov interviewed 1,214 African American panel members who were matched to this sampling frame based on gender, age, years of education, and political ideology. These matched cases were then weighted to the sampling frame using propensity scores based on the following variables age, gender, years of education, and political ideology. Through this process, the 1,214 respondents were matched down to a representative sample of 1,000 African Americans. Notably, of these 1,000 respondents, 45 identified themselves as police officers. Twenty-four respondents did not answer the question asking whether they were a police officer and were removed from the sample. Together, the removal of these respondents from the sample resulted in a citizen sample of 931 African American respondents.

In the final weighted sample of African American citizens, 43.4% of the respondents were male. The average age of the respondents was approximately 44 years (44.2), with most respondents falling within the 25–44 (38.0%) and 45–64 (34.6%) age categories. The sample of respondents varied in their level of education. Specifically, 7.8% of the respondents reported they had not completed high school, 41.3% identified as a high school graduate, and another 24.6% reported completing some college. In terms of college graduation, 9.6% earned a 2-year degree, 11.2% a 4-year degree, and 5.5% a postgraduate degree. The average annual household income for the sample was between US$20,000 and US$39,999. Finally, the majority of the survey respondents identified themselves as either liberal (32.1%) or moderate (38.4%), with only 13.1% identifying as conservative.

Measures of Support

African Americans’ support for specific reforms to address problems with policing in inner-city neighborhoods was assessed using 5 survey items. Specifically, survey respondents were asked the following question:

Given the nature of the problems associated with police in the inner-city neighborhoods, a number of possible solutions or reforms have been suggested. We would like to know how much you support each of the following:

Make police officers wear body cameras to increase the accountability of the officers and the transparency of the police department;

Increase police diversity training so officers are more aware of the experiences and concerns of minority citizens;

Have police officers regularly walk their beats in inner-city communities so they get to know the residents better;

Involve residents from inner-city neighborhoods in the development of police policies and the review of police activities; and

Hire more minority officers or officers that grew up or currently live in the inner-city communities.

To rate these 5 items, the respondents were asked to use a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from do not support to definitely support. The description and frequencies of responses across these 5 items are provided in Table 1 and are discussed in greater detail below. For analysis using logistic regression, these response options were recoded into “support” and “do not support.”

Table 1.

Support for Police Reform in Inner-City Neighborhoods: Nonofficers Only.

Item	% Do Not Support	% Support a Little	% Support	% Definitely Support
1. Body cameras: Make police officers wear body cameras to increase accountability of the officers and the transparency of the police department (n = 926)	4.6	9.1	19.6	66.7
2. Diversity training: Increase police diversity training so officers are more aware of the experiences and concerns of minority citizens (n = 902)	3.7	8.1	22.7	65.4
3. Community policing: Have police officers regularly walk their beats in inner-city communities so they get to know the residents better (n = 921)	4.6	10.7	26.2	58.5
4. Citizen review boards: Involve residents from inner-city neighborhoods in the development of police policies and the review of police activities (n = 920)	4.1	9.1	30.5	56.3
5. Hire more Black officers: Hire more minority officers or officers that grew up or currently live in the inner-city communities (n = 913)	4.2	14.4	32.2	49.2

Note. Percentages reported may be affected by rounding. The number of respondents responding to each item differs and is listed.

Independent Variables

The survey assessed each respondent’s sex, age, highest level of education, annual household income, political ideology, and the current area in which they live. These variables are included in the multivariate analyses.

The purpose of these analyses is to explore whether significant differences or, by contrast, consensus exists among African Americans in their support for police use of BWCs and other reform efforts. Notably, in addition to the survey we constructed, YouGov provides core profile information on each respondent’s demographic and political characteristics (e.g., respondent’s sex, age, highest level of education, annual household income, and political ideology). Panelists’ responses to these core profile items were collected prior to the other measures (i.e., “current area living”) that were included on our survey. Sex is a dichotomous measure (0 = female, 1 = male). Age is a continuous measure calculated from the respondent’s date of birth, which was then collapsed into two categories (divided at the sample mean) and coded as age 18–44 = 0 and those 45 and older = 1. Highest level of education is a dichotomous measure, with those graduating high school or less = 0 and those with some college or more = 1. Note that the dichotomization of age and education was used to enhance model fit in the logistic regression analyses. Annual household income is a categorical measure consisting of seven categories ranging from “US$0–US$9,999” to “US$100,000+,” with US$0–US$9,999 being the reference group.

Political ideology is a dichotomous measure (0 = other, 1 = conservative or very conservative) constructed from YouGov’s core profile item of political ideology. In its original form, this item instructs respondents to select their political ideology from a series of categories including “very liberal,” “liberal,” “moderate,” “conservative,” “very conservative,” and “not sure.” This coding decision was made for two reasons consistent with previous research (King & Wheelock, 2007; Shelley et al., 2017). First, if multiple categories are used, the not sure respondents are anomalous and must be excluded, thus lowering the sample size. These cases are not “missing,” so data cannot be imputed. Second, as noted, we had a substantive concern in this article to compare Black conservatives versus the rest of the sample. As a check, however, we ran the data with a three-category coding (conservative, moderate, and liberal), excluding the not sure respondents. With regard to the BWC model, there was no change in significant variables.

Finally, current area living is a dichotomous measure (0 = other; 1 = urban area with crime). We made this coding choice because the focus of this article was on policing in inner cities. The measure was created from a survey item requesting participants to select the best description of the area they currently live—“rural area,” “suburban area with low crime,” “suburban area with high crime,” “urban area with low crime,” or “urban area with high crime.” Notably, current area living was also assessed as living in an urban area with high crime against all other options. However, living in an urban area with high crime made no significant difference on respondents’ support for the use of BWCs. We further analyzed the data with a three-category model (rural, suburban, and urban), which produced similar results. Note that support for BWCs was quite similar across the community, with those choosing “definitely support” being 67% for rural areas, 64.4% for suburban areas, and 69.7% for urban areas.

Results

Table 1 reports the extent to which African Americans support BWCs as a possible solution for issues arising during the policing of inner-city neighborhoods. As can be seen, only 4.6% of the sample opposed BWCs, with another small group, 9.1%, supporting it just “a little.” By contrast, 86.3% fell into the other two higher support categories. Most instructive is the intensity of the support, with two thirds of the respondents (66.7%) stating they definitely support police wearing cameras.

From Table 1, it also is apparent that African Americans favor a multifaceted approach to police reform. Diversity training has virtually the same level of support as does the BWCs option, with this strategy also earning the definitely support of two thirds of the sample (65.4%). For the other reforms, the level of definite support is lower, but it still ranges from half (49.2%) to nearly 6 in 10 (58.5%). When the support and definite support categories are combined, more than 8 in 10 respondents favored the reforms—diversity training (88.1%), community policing (84.7%), citizen review boards (86.8%), and hiring more Black officers (81.4%).

As suggested above, because a large number of Black respondents were surveyed, it is possible to explore in a meaningful way potential variation in views among African Americans. Table 2 presents the results for support for each reform regressed on demographic characteristics, political ideology, and living in an urban area with crime. Five findings are most relevant. First, age was the most consistent predictor, being positively related to support for most reforms. Second, compared to the lowest economic group, there was a tendency for those in the US$20,000–US$59,999 income range to be more supportive of BWCs and other reforms. Third, with regard to BWCs, conservative political ideology did not predict opposition to BWCs for police. Note, however, that it had a significant negative effect on support for diversity training. Fourth, living in an urban area with crime was unrelated to support for BWCs.

Table 2.

Logistic Regression of Impact of African Americans’ Characteristics on Support for Police Reforms.

Independent Variables	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4		Model 5
	Body Cameras (N = 900)		Diversity Training (N = 877)		Community Policing (N = 895)		Citizen Review Boards (N = 894)		Hire More Black Officers (N = 892)
	B (SE)	OR	B (SE)	OR	B (SE)	OR	B (SE)	OR	B (SE)	OR
Female	0.151 (0.345)	1.163	−0.613 (0.435)	0.541	0.358 (0.340)	1.430	0.124 (0.362)	1.132	0.538 (0.353)	1.713
Age	1.568 (0.468)**	4.799	0.668 (0.478)	1.951	1.469 (0.452)**	4.346	2.607 (.684)***	13.554	0.898 (0.394)*	2.455
Income
$100,000+	1.228 (1.262)	3.415	0.427 (0.996)	1.532	1.731 (1.212)	5.646	0.194 (0.935)	1.214	0.922 (1.165)	2.514
$80,000–99,999	1.509 (1.015)	4.521	0.576 (0.874)	1.780	0.479 (0.604)	1.614	0.083 (0.664)	1.086	0.176 (0.666)	1.192
$60,000–79,999	3.558 (2.016)	35.094	1.600 (0.917)	4.953	2.982 (1.314)*	19.797	1.551 (0.901)	4.717	0.727 (0.661)	2.069
$40,000–59,999	1.947 (0.698)*	7.009	1.412 (0.711)*	4.103	1.084 (0.483)**	2.957	1.622 (0.718)*	5.061	0.922 (0.584)	2.514
$20,000–39,999	0.955 (0.429)*	2.599	2.450 (0.796)**	11.585	1.437 (0.486)**	4.210	1.124 (0.528)*	3.077	0.624 (0.472)	1.866
$10,000–19,999	1.294 (0.568)	3.649	1.827 (0.806)*	6.213	1.927 (0.696)**	6.872	0.554 (0.522)	1.741	1.086 (0.617)	2.962
Conservative	−0.311 (0.434)	0.733	−2.439 (0.414)***	0.087	0.441 (0.547)	1.555	−0.235 (0.481)	0.791	0.168 (0.506)	1.182
Living in urban area with crime	−0.362 (0.345)	0.696	−0.487 (0.435)	0.614	0.246 (0.346)	1.279	0.206 (0.370)	1.228	0.061 (0.352)	1.063
Constant	5.781 (1.220)	4.678	3.149 (0.559)	23.305	1.376 (0.366)	3.960	1.600 (0.402)	4.951	1.759 (0.397)	5.806
Cox and Snell
Pseudo R ²	.062		.086		.051		.053		.020

Note. SE = standard error; OR = odds ratio.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Fifth and most important, the amount of explained variation in the BWC model and the other four reform models is relatively low. The pseudo-R ² for support for body cameras is only 6.2% and is less than 8.6% for all other logistic regression models. (As a check, the data were also analyzed using ordinary least squares regression and continuous variables. The results and the explained variation were substantively similar.) It is conceivable that other unmeasured variables could account for the unexplained variation. Still, taken together, the effects of the independent variables are modest at best and suggest that substantial consensus exists among African Americans in their support for these police reforms.

The issue of consensus is clarified further by examining the level of attitudinal support for the reforms, which shows that differences among African Africans are a matter of degree and not of direction. The issue relative to body cameras is explored in more detail in Table 3, where the frequencies for age and income (the most consistent predictors in Table 2) are presented. To facilitate the presentation of the data, age is divided into categories. We also include the frequencies for political ideology, given its potential policy relevance. For these variables, those least in favor of BWCs are the youngest age-group (those 18–24), the lowest income group (US$9,999 or under), and those who have a conservative political ideology.

Table 3.

Support for Body Cameras by Respondent Characteristics.

Characteristic	Sample Frequency	% Do Not Support	% Support a Little	% Support	% Definitely Support
Age-group
18–24	N = 134	5.3	19.5	27.1	48.1
25–44	N = 354	8.2	9.4	17.9	64.5
45–64	N = 323	1.9	6.5	19.9	71.7
65+	N = 121	4.5	9.1	19.7	66.7
Income category
0–$9,999	N = 179	14.0	15.1	26.8	44.1
$10,000–$19,999	N = 142	2.8	6.3	9.2	81.7
$20,000–$39,999	N = 245	3.7	9.5	21.4	65.4
$40,000–$59,999	N = 245	1.3	8.5	18.3	71.9
$60,000–$79,999	N = 86	0.0	9.4	15.3	75.3
$80,000–$99,999	N = 56	1.8	1.8	38.2	58.2
$100,000+	N = 39	2.6	2.6	10.5	84.2
Political ideology
Conservative	N = 121	7.5	16.7	16.7	59.2
Other	N = 810	4.2	8.1	20.1	67.7

Note. Percentages reported may be affected by rounding. The number of respondents responding to each item differs and is listed.

In all instances, however, the majority of those across all sociopolitical categories support the use of cameras. Thus, those who answered support or definitely support were 75.2% for the youngest group, 70.9% for the lowest income group, and 75.9% for conservatives. In all other age and income categories—and among conservatives (59.2%)—those answering definitely support are near to or exceeds 60%. These results again lend credence to the conclusion that substantial consensus exists among African Americans in support for BWCs as a reform to improve inner-city policing.

Given the large size of the sample (n = 1,000), the respondents included 45 police officers. Although limited in number, their presence allows for a preliminary examination of how their views compare to those of African Americans in general. Table 4 presents the responses for each of the five reforms. Although similar patterns are apparent, officers and the public differ significantly as well. Three main conclusions are relevant. First, two thirds of officers support or definitely support the use of cameras (66.7%). However, the intensity of support among police officers is lower than that found for the public. Thus, whereas 66.6% of citizens strongly endorsed BWCs, only 11.1% of Black police officers felt this strongly. It may be that their support, though present, was tempered by their understandings of the complexities of using camera technology.

Table 4.

Comparison of Support for Police Reform: Nonofficers Versus Officers.

Item		% Do Not Support	% Support a Little	% Support	% Definitely Support	Cramer’s V
1. Body cameras	Nonofficers (n = 927)	4.6	9.2	19.6	66.6	.254*
1. Body cameras	Officers (n = 45)	17.8	15.6	55.6	11.1
2. Diversity training	Nonofficers (n = 902)	3.8	8.1	22.7	65.4	.179*
2. Diversity training	Officers (n = 44)	11.4	22.7	38.6	27.3
3. Community policing	Nonofficers (n = 921)	4.6	10.6	26.3	58.5	.211*
3. Community policing	Officers (n = 45)	2.2	31.1	53.3	13.3
4. Citizen review boards	Nonofficers (n = 920)	4.1	9.1	30.4	56.3	.237*
4. Citizen review boards	Officers (n = 45)	24.4	24.4	28.9	22.2
5. Hire more Black officers	Nonofficers (n = 913)	4.2	14.5	32.2	49.2	.120*
5. Hire more Black officers	Officers (n = 45)	2.2	8.7	58.7	30.4

Note. Percentages reported may be affected by rounding. The number of respondents responding to each item differs and is listed.

*p < .01.

Second, a similar pattern was found for diversity training, community policing, and hiring more Black officers. In each case, officer support (support and definitely support) was high. It reached 65.9% for diversity training, 66.6% for community policing, and—as might be expected—89.1% for hiring more Black officers. Still, the percentage of officers in the definitely support response category was markedly lower.

Third, Black police officers showed their most disagreement when asked about community citizen review boards. The sample of officers split nearly evenly between those in the two highest support categories (51.1%) and those in the categories of do not support and support a little (48.8%). By contrast, nonofficers in the public endorsed this reform strongly, with 56.3% definitely supporting this reform and another 30.4% expressing support.

Discussion

The current project is unique in surveying a large national sample of African Americans regarding their views of how to improve the problems associated with inner-city policing. Consistent with previous studies, which have mainly relied on small and/or local samples, the results revealed that more than 8 in 10 African Americans supported the use of BWCs by the police. Most instructive is the intensity of the support, with fully two thirds of the sample saying that they definitely support the implementation of BWCs. Two issues follow from this revelation.

First, although the data showed high support for BWCs, this finding should be viewed within the context of other possible police reforms. The sample’s support for a range of strategies to improve policing was high, suggesting that they favor multifaceted efforts. This approach would include a police force with more sensitivity to minority citizens (i.e., diversity training, hiring more Black officers), improving relations with the community (i.e., community policing), and independent evaluations of potential police misconduct (i.e., citizen review boards, BWCs). The technology of BWCs thus should not be viewed as a panacea for quelling the concerns of African Americans including those who live inside and outside inner-city neighborhoods. In this vein, Sousa, Miethe, and Sakiyama’s (2017) survey is instructive. Although 91% of Black respondents (vs. 84% for Whites) favored requiring police to wear cameras, only 51% felt that BWCs would “improve police–citizen relations,” 45% felt that they would “increase citizen trust,” and 33% felt that it would “decrease racial tension” (the comparable figures for Whites were, respectively, 68%, 63%, and 37%). Addressing these sticky issues would require diverse reforms that involve how officers are hired, trained, and then held accountable.

Second, a key finding of this study is that there is wide consensus in support for BWCs across the African American community. Living in an inner-city area with crime, for example, was not a significant predictor of support for this reform. The very young and the lowest income group were less supportive (Crow et al., 2018), but a clear majority of even these respondents favored cameras. Conservatives, who represented about 13% of the sample, might have been expected to oppose BWCs as a reform that undermines the police. Indeed, more conservative writings may suggest that BWC footage, in the hands of news media and activist groups, could contribute to anti-police rhetoric and ultimately impede police officers from doing their job effectively (see, e.g., Mac Donald, 2016). In the current study, however, conservative ideology was not significant in the multivariate analysis. Frequency data did show that conservative Blacks were less favorable toward BWCs than others in the sample, but even here they endorsed cameras strongly. So what does this mean?

One possibility is that a national consensus has emerged among African Americans that law enforcement departments should, as a matter of good faith, equip officers with BWCs as one way to ensure constant accountability while officers are on patrol. Such cameras would mean that documenting police misconduct would not depend on serendipity—a person with a cell-phone camera that happens to be in close proximity to an unfolding police–citizen encounter. Police agencies that resist BWCs thus would be vulnerable to the charge that they have something to hide and, in turn, will lie to protect wayward officers. In this context, police leaders who publicly endorse and then implement BWCs as a means of ensuring police transparency and accountability may have an opportunity to increase perceptions of police legitimacy among African Americans in their jurisdiction.

Notably, in a study of police command staff in a southern county, Smykla and colleagues (2016) found that their respondents believed that “BWCs are supported by the public because they do not trust the police” (p. 440). Crow et al. (2018) suggest, however, that support for BWCs may have different sources, which we speculate might be more race specific. According to Crow et al. (2018), advocacy for camera technology has come from the media and civil rights groups, including Black Lives Matter, because of the “purported ability of BWCs to correct bad behavior of officers” (p. 17). Based on their community survey, however, they found that support for BWCs was linked to positive views of the police because they perceived their use would “yield greater benefits.” As they note, people “may be supportive for very different reasons” (Crow et al., 2018, p. 17).

An important consideration thus is whether race shapes why the public supports the use of BWCs. Although the intensity of White support for cameras cannot be discerned from the current survey, it is clear that the American public generally endorses this reform. What needs to be probed in more detail, however, is whether African Americans are more likely to see cameras as a way to minimize excessive force against them as a group and perhaps personally. In effect, cameras could be seen as “capable guardians” that prevent their victimization. Similarly, if police departments refuse to require officers to wear cameras, it is possible that African Americans could interpret this as placing Black citizens at risk in police encounters. These possibilities are speculative; it is possible that African Americans and Whites might overlap in their reasons for endorsing BWCs. Still policing occurs in a racial context, and it seems likely that this reality shapes how Black citizens and White citizens see BWCs.

In this regard, the opportunity for benefit that BWCs present comes with some risk. Problems that threaten to undermine perceptions of police legitimacy could arise when a BWC malfunctions or is turned off during specific police–citizen encounters. Setting this possibility aside, the existence of a video takes the narrative for a lethal or otherwise violent police–citizen encounter out of the control of police agencies and places it up for interpretation. Videos don’t lie, but the story they tell is developed through the eyes of the beholder. If officer violence is explained as a matter of police protocol gone awry that simply results in a slap on the hand or leads to a trial that ends in an acquittal or hung jury, the response of the Black community may well be one of anger and diminished confidence in the police. That is, if African American citizens see, with their own eyes, an officer killing an unarmed young Black male—and “nothing is done about it”—a fresh challenge to police legitimacy is likely to occur.

Such a challenge to police legitimacy in the face of BWC footage presented itself in Cincinnati, OH, in July 2015 when a BWC captured the shooting of Samuel DuBose, an unarmed Black man, by a White officer from the University of Cincinnati Police Division, during a traffic stop (Kroll, 2015). At the heart of this case rested the officer’s defense that he fired his weapon because he feared for his life when, having reached into Dubose’s vehicle, he was dragged forward as Dubose attempted to drive away from the stop (Kroll, 2015). However, within 10 days of this shooting, BWC footage was released to the community along with a statement from county prosecutors, who argued that the officer was not dragged (Pérez-Peña, 2015). At one news conference, DuBose’s mother expressed her relief regarding the presence of this footage stating, “I thought it was going to be covered up” (Pérez-Peña, 2015). An internal review of the incident concluded that it was “entirely preventable,” that the officer was not dragged, and, further, that the officer’s actions violated department policy (Kroll, 2015, p. 4). But this report and the BWC footage did not prove irrefutable. Two trials resulted in mistrials due to hung juries, in part because the prosecution and defense experts’ frame-by-frame analysis of the video concluded that the vehicle had started to move, 0.178 s and 2.4 s, respectively, before the shooting occurred (Pfeffer, 2017a). The officer’s escape from any criminal punishment left the DuBose family “outraged,” and many of the leaders of the Black community calling for peaceful protests of this injustice (Pfeffer, 2017b). However, this case is only one of many examples, such as Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, OK, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA, of lethal police–citizen encounters captured on camera but resulting in no action by the criminal justice system (Park, 2018).

An added complication is now becoming apparent: the sheer cost of BWCs. As one Illinois police chief commented, cameras “are wonderful for winning public trust…. But it’s expensive” (quoted in Kindy, 2019). Beyond funds needed to purchase equipment, storage of months of videos recorded by a police force (increasingly mandated by state laws) can cost thousands of dollars annually—a figure that rises when videos must be edited to protect innocent citizens’ privacy when responding to public information requests. Preparing body-camera footage for trials incurs personnel costs for “lawyers, paralegals, and clerks”—so much so that in Wayne County (Detroit), MI, “prosecutors were hit with US$2.5 million in unexpected personnel costs” (Kindy, 2019). As these unanticipated expenses have arisen, some departments have discontinued their BWC programs, whereas others have halted plans to implement them (Kindy, 2019). These decisions may be pragmatic, even necessary, given limited budgets. Still, should a problematic fatal police shooting occur, the affected department could face a legitimacy crisis—being accused of putting money above transparency and racial justice.

Finally, the results of the sample of Black police officers are revealing in that their responses can reflect both their racial and occupational allegiances. A previous study by Jennings, Fridell, and Lynch (2014) found that 62.7% of Orlando, FL, officers favored the adoption of BWCs in their agency and that no significant difference existed between Black and White respondents on this question. In the current study, 66.7% of officers supported or definitely supported the use of cameras. The interesting finding is that although clearly endorsing BWCs, their level of support was lower and less intense than that found for citizens. The same pattern was discovered for the other four police reforms, especially for community citizen review boards, where police answering support or definitely support was 36.3 percentage points lower (50.5% vs. 86.8%) for nonofficers.

In conclusion, it is clear that the use of BWCs has become a salient policy concern that law enforcement officials across the nation must confront. Beyond the substantive reality of whether BWCs facilitate the achievement of agency goals, cameras have an important symbolic quality, sending a message about whether the police have anything to hide. The issue of police legitimacy thus looms in the background. In this regard, our national survey shows that virtually all African Americans support their use, in part, we suspect, because recent cell-phone videos have documented questionable police behavior that, in the past, would likely never have received scrutiny. Whether police adoption of BWCs will enhance their legitimacy in the nation’s inner-cities remains an empirical question, perhaps contingent on whether they prove to be a source of police accountability. But if departments refuse to adopt BWCs, their legitimacy is now at risk whenever citizens claim that officers’ use of force was racially motivated and unwarranted. Since “videos don’t lie,” a new standard for truth has been created. When a police–citizen encounter goes awry, African Americans—and undoubtedly Americans in general—want to see what happened with their own eyes. In the current postfactual era where truth is devalued by partisan politicians and the media, anything short of this visual standard lacks credibility. The impetus for all major police departments to implement BWCs thus is unlikely to subside in the foreseeable future.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Amanda Graham recently completed her doctoral degree in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Currently, she is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia Southern University. Her current research interests include the measurement of core criminological constructs, implications of public opinion on police policies, and the evaluation of police effectiveness.

Hannah D. McManus is a research associate for the IACP/UC Center for Police Research and Policy as well as a doctoral candidate in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Her past research efforts involved work with a research team in the examination of disproportionate minority contact across the juvenile justice system in Ohio. Her current work includes research in the areas of race and policing, the implementation and evaluation of training for police officers, and police decision-making as it relates to arrest and use of force.

Francis T. Cullen is distinguished research professor emeritus and a senior research associate in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. He is a past president of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. His current research focuses on the status of criminological knowledge, public support for inclusive correctional policies, and building the Rehabilitation-Redemption Model of offender reform.

Velmer S. Burton, Jr. is executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and also Professor of Criminal Justice. His research in crime and justice has been published in Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. He holds the PhD in Sociology from the University of Cincinnati and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cheryl Lero Jonson is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Xavier University. Her current research interests focus on the impact of prison on recidivism, public opinion on criminal justice policy, and active shooter responses.

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