The Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on the Adjudication of Citizen Complaints of Police Misconduct

Abstract

We use citizen complaint data from the Chicago Police Department and Civilian Office of Police Accountability filed between 2013-2020 to determine the extent to which Body-worn camera (BWC) footage enhances the efficacy of evidence used to formulate a conclusion of responsibility, and whether racial disparities in investigation outcomes would subsequently be reduced. Accordingly, we exploit the staggered deployment of BWCs across 22 Chicago police districts over time to estimate the effect of BWCs on these outcomes. Findings indicate BWCs led to a significant decrease in the dismissal of investigations due to insufficient evidence (“not sustained”) and a significant increase in disciplinary actions against police officers (“sustained” “outcomes”) with sufficient evidence to sanction their misconduct. We further find that disparities in complaints across racial groups for the “unsustained” category faded away with the implementation of BWCs. The article concludes with theoretical and research implications based on the findings.