Advancing the Implementation of Body-Worn Cameras: Using Police Officers’ Buy-In to Inform Research and Policy

The extant literature on police body-worn cameras (BWCs) has focused on how this technology would yield beneficial outcomes, such as having a “civilizing” effect on police behavior during interactions with civilians. While such studies have highlighted the potential positive outcomes of using BWCs, it is important to understand why and how police officers “buy-in” to its implementation in their departments. Officer buy-in can be important for several reasons, including officers’ compliance with BWC policy, mental health, and motivation to do their jobs. Therefore, the objective of the present paper was to emphasize the importance of considering officer buy-in when integrating BWCs, propose self-determination theory (SDT) as a theoretical framework to inform research on officer buy-in, and provide future directions for research and policy based on SDT. We use SDT as the basis of our research, as other theories (i.e., self-awareness and deterrence theory) do not sufficiently explicate how officer buy-in may be obtained.