This research sought to understand the potential association between officer perceptions of organizational justiceand officer perceptions of body-worn cameras (BWCs). A questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 362 officersfrom the 750 sworn personnel from the Richmond Police Department in Richmond, VA, yielding a response rate of 91% and representing 44% of the Richmond Police Department’s sworn employees. This study extends prior work by partially replicating a previous BWC survey conducted by leading body-worn camera scholars, utilizing a large sample from an urban mid-Atlantic police department. This study also extends prior work on officer perceptions of organizational justice by examining officer perceptions of personal behavior modifications motivated by BWCs. Findings indicate that officers had positive general perceptions of BWCs but did not perceive that their own behavior would change due to wearing a BWC. Officers reported high perceptions of self-legitimacy and mixed perceptions of organizational justice; for example, although three quarters of respondents (74.6%) felt that command staff generally treats employees with respect, less than a third felt command staff explained the reasons for their decisions (29.1%) and that employees had a voice in agency decisions (29.7%), indicating areas for improvement in agency communication. Exploratory factor analysis yielded three separate organizational justice factors: procedural justice, distributive justice, and interactional justice. Regression analyses indicated that only procedural justice had a significant association with officers’ general perceptions of BWCs after controlling for officer demographics and perceptions of self-legitimacy (β = .20, p < .001), and there were no significant correlations between officer perceptions of organizational justice constructs and their perceptions of personal behavior modification motivated by BWCs. Policy recommendations include quarterly command staff attendance at precinct roll calls to improve internal department communication and an evaluation of the promotion process to improve officer perceptions of organizational justice. Practitioner/researcher partnerships are recommended to realize the full potential of BWC video data in improving department training and policies.

American policing is shaped by an array of challenges. Police are expected to address crime and engage the community, yet police are held to higher expectations of accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency than ever before. Police legitimacy is the ability of the police to exercise their authority in the course of maintaining order, resolving conflicts, and solving problems (PERF, 2014). The procedural justice and police legitimacy literature suggest that by exhibiting procedurally just behaviors within police-citizen encounters, officers are considered legitimate by the public (PERF, 2014; Tyler, 2004, Tyler & Jackson, 2012). This study examines procedural justice through systematic observations of police-citizen encounters recorded by body worn cameras in one mid-Atlantic police agency. The four elements of procedural justice (participation, neutrality, dignity and respect, and trustworthiness) are assessed to examine police behavior and its outcomes. The research questions concern how police acting in procedurally just ways may influence citizen behaviors. Descriptive statistics indicate high levels of procedural justice. Regression analyses suggest that procedural justice may predict positive citizen behaviors within police-citizen encounters. This study highlights the significance of procedural justice as an antecedent to police legitimacy and offers a new mode of observation: body worn camera footage.