Body Worn Cameras and police image work: News media coverage of the Rialto Police Department’s body worn camera experiment

In 2015, the so-called “Rialto study” was published in a peer-reviewed journal, although the findings of this experiment impacted policing as early as 2013. The yearlong study of officers who wore Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) in Rialto, California found that among those officers who wore the devices, use of force incidents decreased, as did complaints against the officers. These findings were extensively profiled in news media and lauded by numerous police agencies across North America and the United Kingdom. This article examines reporting of the findings of the Rialto study in news media. BWCs have received considerably more coverage in news media than in the research literature. Practically no scholarship has addressed this issue. BWCs are said to enhance police legitimacy, or the judgements of citizens concerning police conduct. A great deal of police legitimacy concerns maintaining control over their public image in media as the legitimate authority, or image work. Given the importance of police image work and the coverage of BWCs in news media, it remains vital then that we understand how BWCs are discussed in media. Some suggestions for future research are noted