Police body camera ramp up started a decade ago. How well have they worked?

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Body cameras have proliferated in law enforcement agencies in the U.S. over the past decade, amid mounting scrutiny over how officers and agents interact with the communities they serve. They’re forcing major changes in how policing is done, even as research is mixed on their effectiveness. The Associated Press on Thursday sat in on a discussion of the law-enforcement tool with representatives from more than 200 agencies nationwide, hosted by the think tank Police Executive Research Forum. New York City became one of the first large departments to adopt body cameras in 2013 after a federal court found police wrongly targeted minorities with a stop-and-frisk program.