Body-worn cameras are increasingly being used by U.S. law enforcement agencies and often play a central role in high-profile police killings. But wide disparities remain in how they are employed and when the footage is made public.
Conflicting witness accounts of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, a Black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, led former President Barack Obama's administration to fund body-worn camera programs across 32 states.
Larger agencies were more likely to adopt the devices. One notable exception is the police department in Portland, Oregon, which ceased its initial body-worn camera pilot program in 2020, citing "major budget constraints." Among states that do regulate access, North Carolina has one of the most restrictive laws, requiring anyone seeking a copy of a body-worn camera recording to get court approval. By contrast, a new Colorado law will require recordings to be released to the public within 21 days after the agency receives a complaint of misconduct, with exceptions for privacy concerns or cases where the release would interfere with an investigation.
Average activations of body-worn cameras for police officers in Anaheim, California, ranged from 0% to 72%, according to a 2015 study co-authored by Daniel Lawrence, a policing expert at the Urban Institute.Audio and video recordings from body-worn cameras are often sought after police killings, including the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. Prosecutors used Chauvin's body-camera footage to help convince a jury to convict the former officer on April 20.
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