The Milwaukee Police Department’s Body-worn Camera Program: Evaluation Findings and Key Takeaways

• NCJ Number: 309580
• Author(s): Bryce E. Peterson; Lilly Yu; Nancy La Vigne; Daniel S. Lawrence
• Date Published: 2018
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2015-WY-BX-0006
• Agencies: BJA-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This publication describes an evaluation of the Milwaukee Police Department’s body-worn camera program, which was implemented in phases from October 2015 to December 2016; the document describes the program evaluation methodology and outcomes, which showed that BWCs had no effect on officers’ use of force although they were associated with fewer subject stops and complaints.

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an evaluation of the Milwaukee Police Department’s (MPD) body-worn camera (BWC) program. The BWC program underwent a phased rollout to approximately 1,100 patrol officers over the course of 2016, starting in October 2015. For this evaluation, the Urban Institute performed a randomized controlled trial of 504 officers. This document describes the BWC rollout and evaluation process and its main findings; it provides data, presented as bar charts depicting the average number of arrests among treatment and control groups, average number of traffic stops, average number of subject stops, the share of officers with one or more complaints, and the share of officers involved in one or more use-of-force incidents. The document also discusses some key takeaways from the evaluation, including the findings that officers wearing BWCs conducted significantly fewer subject stops than officers without cameras; BWCs appear to have reduced complaints against MPD officers; and BWCs had no effect on whether officers engaged in use of force. The appendix goes into further detail regarding the randomized controlled trial methodology, with group balance diagnostics, and a discussion of difference-in-difference (DiD) models.