http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/08/12/study-links-police-bodycams-to-increase-in-shooting-deaths/

In the wake of high-profile police shootings, the Obama administration has encouraged local police departments to equip their officers with body-worn cameras. The devices, said Attorney General Loretta Lynch, “hold tremendous promise for enhancing transparency, promoting accountability, and advancing public safety.”

A new study by Temple University researchers, however, suggests that the wearable video cameras may not lead to fewer police shootings of civilians, but may actually make officers more likely to use lethal force.

Those are findings from a new working paper by Min-Seok Pang and Paul A. Pavlou of Temple University’s Fox School of Business. The scholars, who research the impact of information technology on organizations, drew heavily on the Washington Post’s tally of fatal police shootings in 2015 (986 deaths in total), among other national datasets.

They write:

Surprisingly, we found that the use of wearable video cameras is associated with a 3.64% increase in shooting-deaths of civilians by the police. We explain that video recordings collected during a violent encounter with a civilian can be used in favor of a police officer as evidence that justifies the shooting. Aware of this evidence, the officer may become less reluctant to engage in the use of deadly force…. This contradicts the expectation of many law enforcement officials and policymakers that video cameras would reduce incidents of use of deadly force.

What’s more, they found that body cameras were associated with a larger increase in shooting deaths of African Americans and hispanics than whites and Asians.

The professors found almost no link between cameras and shooting deaths in 2013 and 2014. The difference between those years and 2015, they surmise: Officers grew more comfortable using the devices in the field. “It could take a while for police officers to realize how helpful evidence from body cameras can be in justifying the use of lethal force,” they write.

In comparing police departments that use cameras (representing about 25% of local forces, according to the study) against ones that don’t, the scholars say they controlled for a “variety of indicators for crime rates, police operations, and demographic and socioeconomic conditions.”

The paper also looked at the use of smartphones and in-vehicle laptops that allow police officers to obtain crime data and suspect information on the fly. In contrast to their findings on body cameras, “smartphone use by officers is also associated with a 2.46% reduction in the shooting-deaths of civilians,” the study said.

The authors note some “limitations” in the study. Among them: They weren’t able to draw conclusions about how technology use “affects warranted and unwarranted shootings differently.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3322568&forum_id=2#31190767)

it's more interesting that there's no decline. it strongly suggests that most shootings are justified

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3322568&forum_id=2#31190849)