This brief focuses its examination on four survey questions that were aimed at gaining insights from the Milwaukee community on its members’ perceptions of police officers' actions and attitudes, and the impacts of body-worn cameras on policing.
This publication discusses community survey results stemming from an evaluation of the Milwaukee Police Department’s (MPD) body-worn camera (BWC) program. The program began in October 2014 in response to strained police relations with communities of color that were impacted by several highly public police shootings of black men in Milwaukee and across the country. Milwaukee community members were surveyed in April 2016, September 2017, and July 2018 about their attitudes toward the police department and its BWC program. The document examines responses to four questions from those surveys that focused on community members’ perceptions of the MPD and its BWC programs. Findings indicated that public knowledge of BWCs grew significantly each year, and that the majority of community members held positive views of the BWC program and the MPD; they also indicated that views varied over the years based on key demographic characteristics, and that black respondents had lower overall opinions about how often MPD officers were respectful and about the potential for BWCs to improve police-community relations or officer accountability.