Even the cops don’t think society trusts them, according to a new study from FAU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

The study, published on Dec. 14, asked law enforcement leadership about its stance on police body cams.

“This is the first survey of police command staff perceptions of body worn cameras in the U.S.,” said lead author John Ortiz Smykla, a director and professor in the FAU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. “A lot of people are enthusiastic about the benefits of body-worn cameras, but despite, there has been no research of command perceptions.”

Two-thirds agree or strongly agree that use of body-worn cameras is supported by the public because society does not trust police, the study says.   

But the pressure for these cameras comes from somewhere very different.

“What surprised me the most was that the command staff believes that the pressure to use body cameras was coming from the media,” Ortik Smykla said. “I didn’t expect that.”

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed believe that the pressure to implement body cams comes from the media, who will use the data to embarrass them. Ortiz Smykla thinks the media could use this footage for a different purpose though.

“The positive things that police do will gain attention, not just the negative things like shootings,” he said.

The UP reached out to both the FAU Police Department and Boca Raton Police Department, but did not receive a response as of publication time.

The West Palm Beach Police Department is the first agency in Palm Beach County to require their officers to wear body cameras.

“What I like about the body camera is it allows you to see the entire perspective of the incident we’re going to,” officer Ryan Secord with the West Palm Beach Police Department told WPTV.

The study was conducted in an anonymous county with approximately 2 million people and 30 different law enforcement agencies. It asked chiefs, deputies, sheriffs, majors, colonels and captains to fill out a survey to measure their perceptions of body cameras.

A full list of the key findings from the study can be seen below.

• Fifty percent support the use of body-worn cameras in their agencies.
• Only 21 percent agree or strongly agree that body-worn cameras would affect officer behavior while on duty; more than 58 percent are neutral.
• One-third believe body-worn cameras would improve police officer behavior during interactions with citizens; 50 percent are neutral.
• Nearly 50 percent agree that body-worn cameras will impact police officers’ decisions to use force in encounters with citizens.
• Nearly 50 percent believe that body-worn cameras will improve citizen behavior during interactions with police.
• Almost 60 percent agree or strongly agree that the media will use data from body cameras to embarrass or persecute the police.
• More than 60 percent agree or strongly agree that pressure to implement body-worn cameras comes from the media.
• Two-thirds agree or strongly agree that use of body-worn cameras is supported by the public because society does not trust the police.
• Fifty percent agree or strongly agree that body-worn cameras will result in an increase of guilty pleas from people charged with crimes.
• Nearly 63 percent do not believe that body-worn cameras are an invasion of a police officer’s privacy, but are evenly split on whether they are an invasion of citizens’ privacy.
• Almost half agree or strongly agree that body-worn cameras could be used by supervisors to “fish” for evidence used to discipline officers.
• Fifty percent believe that the maintenance and upkeep of body cameras will take time away from normal duties.

The full study can be found here.

Gregory Cox is the managing editor of the University Press. If you would like to contact him regarding this or other articles, email him at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter.