PROTOCOL: Body‐worn cameras’ effects on police officers and citizen behavior: a systematic review

Body‐worn cameras (BWCs) are one of the most rapidly diffusing technologies in policing today, costing agencies and their municipalities millions of dollars. This adoption has been propelled by highly publicized events involving police use of force or misconduct, often linked to concerns of racial and ethnic discrimination (see general discussions by Braga, Sousa, Coldren, & Rodriguez, 2018; Lum, Stoltz, Koper, & Scherer, 2019; Maskaly, Donner, Jennings, Ariel, & Sutherland, 2017; Nowacki & Willits, 2018; White, 2014). In culmination, these contexts fostered enough public and political will to generate an urgent call for BWCs. This demand was matched with a prepared supplier; technology companies had already been developing both BWCs and other similar surveillance devices (e.g., in‐car cameras, license plate readers, and closed‐circuit televisions). In the United States, an estimated 60% of local police departments have fully deployed BWCs (Hyland, 2018). Similar widespread testing, piloting, and adoption of BWCs have also occurred in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Europe...