Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Study: Complaints against police drop when cops wear body cams
Two black men were shot and killed by police over the weekend. In one of the shootings, LAPD gang officers were wearing body cameras. Body cameras are seen by many as a valuable tool to reduce police violence – that officers will be less likely to shoot or assault a suspect if they know their actions are being recorded. But is that true?
By Madeleine Brand • • 1 min readTwo black men were shot and killed by police over the weekend. In one of the shootings, LAPD gang officers were wearing body cameras. Body cameras are seen by many as a valuable tool to reduce police violence – that officers will be less likely to shoot or assault a suspect if they know their actions are being recorded. But is that true? According to a new study, that may be what’s happening. Researchers at Cambridge University monitored three police departments in the United Kingdom and California, including the Ventura PD, and they found that complaints against the police dropped an astonishing 93 percent from the year before.
