Cameras on Police

This article from the WSJ reports on the growing trend to mount cameras on police cars and uniforms to record the interactions between police and citizens. "In Rialto, Calif., where an entire police force is wearing so-called body-mounted cameras, no bigger than pagers, that record everything that transpires between officers and citizens. In the first year after the cameras' introduction, the use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%."

"The article has two interesting points for economic analysis. The first point is about the effect of monitoring on behavior. With body-mounted cameras, the use of force by police officers and citizen complaints decline. An interesting question is about the cause of the use-of-force effect; either police are using less force in the cases when they actually should not, or citizens are taken fewer actions that require the use of force. Students can evaluate whether the reduction in citizen complaints helps in answering this question. The second point is about the classic razor-blade pricing problem and the cost to police forces of using the cameras. 'One problem with the cameras, however, has been cost. Fortunately, fierce competition between the two most prominent vendors of the devices, Vievu LLC and Taser International Inc., which makes the cameras used by Rialto police, has driven the price of individual cameras down to between $300 and $400. Unfortunately, one place where expenses can mount is in the storage and management of the data they generate.'" The article continues by making the point that competition in the data storage market could push prices lower" (James Dearden, Lehigh University). 

Another reason that the number of complaints has fallen is that the records might contradict claims by citizens that the police used excessive force.