Police Body Worn Cameras in Rio’s Favelas: Can Technology Reduce Violence?
Police Body Worn Cameras in Rio’s Favelas: Can Technology Reduce Violence?
Research brief on "Warriors and Vigilantes as Police Officers: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Body Cameras in Rio de Janeiro," by Beatriz Magaloni, Vanessa Melo, and Gustavo Robles (Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, Volume 7, article number 2, (2023)).
In 2016, a team of three researchers based at Stanford University — Beatriz Magaloni, Vanessa Melo, and Gustavo Robles — conducted a groundbreaking experiment in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela (informal settlement), to test whether body-worn cameras (BWC) could reduce police violence and improve community relations.
The findings reveal that body cameras hold great promise, but they also come with serious challenges. Before the experiment started, one police unit commander ominously told the researchers: “If you give body cameras to my officers, this will stop them from doing their job.”