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Body Cameras

With protections in place, body cameras have the potential to better document encounters between police officers and citizens while mitigating competing concerns about their potential for misuse or abuse.

Resources

Video Trainings

Using Police Technologies to Uncover Law Enforcement Misconduct in Criminal Cases

This webinar from August 11, 2020 featured Debbie Levi, Director of Special Litigation with the Baltimore City Public Defender, and Ivan Bates, Managing Partner of Bates & Garcia, P.C.

Defending Cases in Body Camera Jurisdictions 

This program from November 29-30, 2018 featured Debbie Levi, Director of Special Litigation with the Baltimore City Public Defender, Jumana Musa, Director of NACDL's Fourth Amendment Center, and Harlan Yu, Executive Director of Upturn.

Using Big Data as a Shield 

This program from November 29-30, 2018 featured Cynthia Conti-Cook, Technology Fellow, Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice with the Ford Foundation.

Shaping Policies and Defending Cases in Body Camera Jurisdictions

This webinar from April 6, 2017, featured Harlan Yu, Director of Upturn, Seth Morris, a criminal defense attorney with Cooper, Cooper & Morris, and Barry Porter, a criminal defense attorney with Burgess & Porter Law, LLC. 

Assessing Body Cameras

  • Evaluating the Effects of Police Body-Worn Cameras: A Randomized Controlled Trial
    The Lab @ DC, with the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 2017
     
  • Body Worn Cameras and the Courts: A National Survey of State Prosecutors
    George Mason University's Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, 2016
     
  • Contagious Accountability: A Global Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police
    Barak Ariel, Alex Sutherland, Darren Henstock, et al., 2017
     
  • Existing and Ongoing Body Worn Camera Research: Knowledge Gaps and Opportunities
    George Mason University's Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, 2015
     
  • Evaluating the impact of police officer body-worn cameras (BWCs) on response-to-resistance and serious external complaints
    Wesley G. Jennings, Mathew D. Lynch, Lorie A. Fridell, with the Orlando Police Department, October 2015
     
  • The Effect of Policy Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens' Complaints Against the Police
    Barak Ariel, William Farrar, Alex Sutherland, 2014, often known as 'the Rialto study'
     
  • Los Angeles Critical Incident Video Release Policy
    Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, adopted March 2018
     
  • Police Body Worn Cameras: A Policy Scorecard
    Upturn and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, November 2017
     
  • NYPD Body-Worn Camera Proposed Policy: Fact Sheet
    New York City Police Department and The Policing Project at NYU School of Law, June 2016
     
  • Law Enforcement Directive Regarding Police Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) and Stored BWC Recordings
    State of New Jersey, Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive No. 2015-1

Other Resources

  • A Primer on Body-Worn Cameras for Law Enforcement
    National Institute for Justice, 2012
     
  • The Illusion of Accuracy: How Body-Worn Camera Footage Can Distort Evidence
    Upturn and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 2017
     
  • Albuquerque Police Department On-Body Camera System Research
    City of Albuquerque, 2016
     
  • Body-Worn Cameras: An Empty Reform to Expand the Surveillance State
    Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, 2015
     
  • What happens to body cam footage after fatal police shootings?
    Upturn, March 2018
     
  • Civil Rights Principles on Body-Worn Cameras
     2015
     
  • Independent Lens: Toward Transparency, Accountability, and Effectiveness in Police Tactics
    Harvard Black Law Students Association, 2015
     
  • Police Body-Mounted Cameras: With Right Policies in Place, a Win For All
    American Civil Liberties Union, 2015
     
  • Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned
    Department of Justice, Office of Community-Oriented Policing, and The Police Executive Research Forum, 2014

Need help with a body camera case?


The Center is available to provide consultations and litigation resources as well as direct assistance in support of a defendant’s Fourth Amendment claims. Specifically, the Center may assist in motion practice, preparation for suppression hearings, appellate strategy, brief writing, and oral argument. The Center also provides group trainings for defense lawyers around the country and upon request.

To request assistance or additional information, contact 4AC@nacdl.org.

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Strengthening the Sixth

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