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Several questionable officer involved shootings and perceived abuses of authority disproportionately involving minority citizens have resulted in public outcry, protests, and nationwide scrutiny of police in recent years. The resulting police legitimacy crisis has prompted agencies to rapidly equip officers with body-worn video cameras (BWCs). BWC advocates lauded the findings of an early study that attributed significant reductions in use of force incidents and citizen complaints to the devices and it is this and a handful of other short-term studies upon which the claims of these benefits are predicated. However, subsequent research has produced mixed findings and the sustainability of any reductions remains questionable. The limited knowledge concerning the impact of BWCs on the aforementioned outcomes is problematic considering the potential negative impact of unrealistic expectations and the expense of BWC program maintenance. The objective of this dissertation is to address gaps in the extant research by exploring the impact of an incremental deployment of the devices on the frequency and severity of use of force incidents and the frequency and outcome of citizen complaints while controlling for staffing, volume of officer-initiated enforcement contacts, and the Ferguson incident. Utilizing 86-months of secondary data collected from the Newport News, Virginia Police Department (NNPD) a vector autoregressive multivariate time series analysis indicates that BWCs were a significant factor in a substantial sustained reduction in use of force and a substantial sustained increase in exonerated complaint dispositions at the NNPD.

La présente étude s’intéresse aux facteurs associés aux différents types de décisions rendus par le Comité à la déontologie policière du Québec. Pour ce faire, 267 jugements rendus entre 2009 et 2013 sont analysés. La régression logistique est utilisée pour déterminer les facteurs associés (1) à la décision de culpabilité (2) à la décision sur sanction et (3) à la sévérité de la sanction (sanction de courte durée ou de longue durée). Les facteurs utilisés dans les modèles sont des facteurs légaux (nature, gravité de l’inconduite et plaidoyer de culpabilité) ainsi que des facteurs extra-légaux -tels que les caractéristiques des policiers et des plaignants, le contexte de l’intervention ainsi qu’un facteur lié au processus décisionnel du comité (la durée des procédures)- disponibles dans les jugements. Les résultats montrent que le verdict est majoritairement influencé par la qualité de la preuve et que la sévérité de la sanction dépend principalement des facteurs légaux. Toutefois, certains facteurs extra-légaux influencent le verdict, dont le grade du policier. Parmi les facteurs extra-légaux qui influencent la décision sur sanction, il y a le grade, le sexe et le service de police du policier. Malgré tout, le Comité à la déontologie policière prend des décisions relativement cohérentes et les décisions prises sont justifiables légalement sauf pour quelques caractéristiques du policier et pour la durée des procédures. Ces derniers montrent la nécessité de faire davantage d’études sur le sujet. / Even though disciplinary systems are criticized for their lack of coherence and fairness, there is currently no study specifically focusing on the predictive factors related to the outcome of the officers’ sentencing process. The present research aims to investigate the factors associated with the different types of decisions rendered by the Deontology Committee of Quebec. A total of 267 hearings were analyzed between the year 2009 and 2013. Logistic regression models are used to predict the outcomes of the sentencing on three levels: (1) the determination of guilt, (2) the decision on the sanction, and (3) the severity of the sanction (short- or long-term sanction). The factors used in the models are legal factors - specific to the nature and the severity of the misconduct - and extralegal factors - related to the complainant’s and officer’s characteristics, the situation and the length of procedures - available in the judgments handed down by the Committee. The analyses in this paper show that the different outcomes are mostly due to the legally relevant factors. On the other hand, some extralegal factors like the officers’ rank have an influence on the determination of guilt. And, some officers’ characteristics like the officers’ rank, sex, police department and the length of procedures tend to influence the outcomes of the sentencing. Thus, the findings show that decisions rendered by the Committee are mostly taken in accordance with its mandate and are legally justifiable. The latter results show that more research is needed concerning the impact of extralegal factors on the outcomes.