California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2018_Winter Magazine-FINAL | Page 25
targeting minorities and behaving
disrespectfully to the public. While
there have been a few incidents where
this happened, most complaints where
the officer’s behavior was documented
by a BWC vindicated the officer, and
showed that the complainant created
most of the problem and/or fabricated
the complaint.
A study performed by CNA,
a nonprofit research and analysis
organization located in Arlington,
Virginia, for the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department
(LVMPD) compared the cost of
performing misconduct complaint
investigations with and without
BWCs. CNA found that a complaint
that did not involve a BWC took
an average of 91 personnel hours
and cost $6,776. When there was a
BWC documenting the incident, the
hour count went down to 7.33, at
a cost of $554. CNA estimated that
LVMPD avoided $4,006 in complaint
investigation costs per year for every
BWC user involved in the study.
The same study showed that
about 2/3 of the complaints against
BWC-equipped officers could be
cleared by reviewing the camera
footage alone, avoiding the need
to interview witnesses and gather
statements.
CNA also broke down the total
costs of LVMPD’s BWC program, to
include costs of hardware, licenses,
infrastructure upgrades, training,
monitoring use and responding to
requests for camera footage. They
placed the cost per user at $1,097 in
2014. This figure does not reflect the
aforementioned cost avoidance of
investigating personnel complaints.
Even though the LVMPD study
was based on a limited deployment,
the cost savings were remarkable, far
outpacing the cost of the program
itself. A smaller agency might not
see savings of this magnitude.
Agencies of any size, however, will
see greater transparency and better
accountability to the public, which is
of immeasurable value.
It remains that most agencies,
large and small, that have
implemented BWCs have found them
sufficiently worthwhile to continue the
program, even if requires a significant
capital expenditure. It’s one of a few
innovations well-supported by both
the public and the police. ■
About the Author: Tim Dees is a retired
police officer and the former editor of
two major law enforcement websites
who writes and consults on technology
applications in criminal justice.
He can be reached at [email protected].
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