@article{ref1,
title="But did they get it "right"? Deadly force, body-worn camera footage, and hindsight bias",
journal="Policing (Bradford)",
year="2022",
author="Roche, Sean Patrick and Fenimore, Danielle M. and Taylor, Paul",
volume="45",
number="4",
pages="618-632",
abstract="PURPOSE American police agencies' swift adoption of body-worn camera (BWC) technology, coupled with the ubiquity of smartphones and social media, has led to a &quot;new visibility&quot; of policing. Video recordings are often touted as objective evidentiary accounts of police-civilian interactions. Yet even these recordings are rarely seen in a vacuum, but instead accompanied by headlines and accounts. <br><br>DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH Using a diverse sample of young American adults (N = 943) and an experimental design incorporating a short poorly recorded BWC video embedded within a survey, this study investigates perceptions of the appropriateness of police behavior in an ambiguous situation where officers used deadly force on a Black civilian. All respondents viewed the same video, but were randomly assigned to one of four ultimate outcomes. <br><br>FINDINGS Respondents overwhelmingly reported the BWC video was personally important and significant for a subsequent investigation and public opinion. The experimental manipulation, along with background factors, exerted a substantial effect on perceptions of the officers' actions. Respondents found the officers' actions more appropriate when told the civilian held a weapon. <br><br>ORIGINALITY/VALUE Americans are divided on the role of police in a democratic society. <br><br>OBJECTIVE accounts like video recordings may be used to build consensus, but our results, derived from a novel method and dataset, suggest deeper cognitive biases must also be overcome.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1363-951X",
doi="10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2021-0126",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2021-0126"
}