Body Cameras Installation Program in Santa Catarina (Brazil)
Axios
Policing
Solution types
Body Cameras
Problems addressed
Police abuse and/or lethality
Effectiveness

Effective

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Effective

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Life periods served
People of all ages
Where the program was applied
Community (streets or community centers)
Police station or police department
Country of application
Brazil
Description

This is an intervention that installs body cameras on police uniforms. The goal is to reduce incidents related to abuse of police force and civilian complaints.
The intervention requires police officers to keep their video cameras on during their shift and inform citizens that their interaction is being filmed.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that officer-worn body cameras reduced police violence escalation episodes (use of force, handcuffing, etc.) by about 61.2% while improving the quality of police reports and the accuracy of officer reports [1].
The study had an experimental design with a sample of 150 police officers assigned to use the body camera and 300 police officers in the control group, without using the tool. The study covered five police stations located in different municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Barbosa, D., Fetzer, T., Souza, P. C., Vieira, C. (2021). De-escalation technology: the impact of body-worn cameras on citizen-police interactions. CAGE working paper n. 581. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/pu…

Information source