Research on the Impact of Technology on Policing Strategies

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) on negative police interactions with citizens. This research project will entail process and outcome evaluation studies. The process evaluation will consist of qualitative and quantitative analyses to study the introduction and implementation of BWCs in the LVMPD, and monitoring of the project fidelity to the experimental conditions and department policy regarding the use of BWCs by the officers and sergeants in the patrol division. The process evaluation component will also develop several measures for the mediating effects of sergeants on the patrol officers' use of the BWCs. The outcome evaluation component will consist of a cluster randomized experiment of approximately 400 patrol officers who will receive training on the use of BWCs while on duty (activating them during citizen encounters). Officers' behavior when interacting with the public will be assessed through the measurement of four dependent variables related to citizen contacts and use of force using Hierarchical Linear Models (HLMs) to estimate the difference in average scores on the behavior index for pre- and post-implementation time periods and between the treatment and control groups. Additionally, HLM regression analyses will explore the influence of intervening variables at the officer and sergeant level (e.g., officer and sergeant experience and comfort with technology, length of time in policing, and demographic variables). Finally, a cost-benefit analysis will be conducted to estimate officer time spent in court or on suspension due to negative behavior with citizens.ca/ncf