Police body-worn camera footage: Attitudes toward the public right to view and police communication

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to learn more about the factors that influence citizen perceptions of the public right to view BWC footage of a critical incident as well as police communication afterwards. To accomplish this, we used a 2 × 2 vignette where citizen race and object were manipulated to different conditions. Using a survey instrument sent to Amazon Mturk workers, several notable findings related to demographic and media perceptions were found regarding the public’s right to view the footage. White respondents were more likely to believe that the public should be able to view the footage involving the Black suspect holding a cellphone, whereas White respondents were less likely to believe that the public should be able to view the footage involving a Black suspect holding a handgun. Age was positively related to supporting increased communication from police for the scenario with a Black suspect with a cellphone,among several other significant relationships. As media hostility increased, respondents were less likely to support increased communication from the police. Perceptions of media hostility consistently influenced respondent perceptions of the public’s right to view BWC footage and police communication across all manipulations.