Systematic social event modeling: a methodology for analyzing body-worn camera footage

Police Officer Use of Force Mindset and Street-Level Behavior

“…SSO and BWC coding methodologies would also assist in teasing out the interactive sequencing of police use of force and citizen resistance. Recent work has also stressed the importance of using BWC footage to assess when force is used and for how long it is used during police-citizen encounters (Makin et al, 2020; Willits & Makin, 2018). Gaining an understanding as to the timing of force could be of importance to officer mindset as it would be fruitful to examine whether officers with higher perceptions of workplace danger or citizen suspicion are quicker than their counterparts to use coercion or escalate an encounter.…”

Police Use of Force Escalation and De-escalation: The Use of Systematic Social Observation With Video Footage

“…The purpose is to lay out a research process that uses video data and incorporates a SSO coding methodology and the RFCS evaluative framework to better understand police use of force behavior (e.g., de-escalation and escalation). Hence, similar to the small, but growing literature in this area (i.e., Makin et al, 2021;Sytsma et al, 2021), we offer a systematic methodology for coding and analyzing video data that can help answer important use of force research questions in the future.…”

Measuring Procedural Justice Policy Adherence During Use of Force Events: The Body-Worn Camera as a Performance Monitoring Tool

“…In doing so, BWC use offers utility for assessing adherence to various policies by independent monitors, by researchers, and for self-monitoring purposes over the long term. Whereas police-citizen encounters are typically analyzed indirectly (e.g., through officer/citizen statements or written reports), BWC footage allows observers to view and analyze encounters as they unfold, thereby enabling researchers to systematically measure key situational and transactional aspects of police-citizen encounters (Makin et al, 2020). Makin et al (2020) demonstrate that BWC footage enables researchers to contextualize outcomes of police-citizen encounters and other social events of interest.…”

“…Whereas police-citizen encounters are typically analyzed indirectly (e.g., through officer/citizen statements or written reports), BWC footage allows observers to view and analyze encounters as they unfold, thereby enabling researchers to systematically measure key situational and transactional aspects of police-citizen encounters (Makin et al, 2020). Makin et al (2020) demonstrate that BWC footage enables researchers to contextualize outcomes of police-citizen encounters and other social events of interest. Researchers have recently leveraged such a benefit by using BWC footage to study a range of policing topics, including negative emotional states in police-community interactions (Makin et al, 2019), passenger aggression toward officers during citation events (Friis et al, 2020), police-citizen interactions during traffic stops (Voigt et al, 2017), opportunities for problem-oriented policing during routine police-citizen encounters (Pollock et al, 2020), and the duration of police use of physical force (Willits & Makin, 2018).…”

“…Although the central focus of body-worn camera (BWC) research has primarily been summative in nature (Lum et al, 2020), researchers have explored connections between BWC use and indicators of procedural justice (e.g., McClure et al, 2017;McCluskey et al, 2019). In addition, Makin et al (2020) demonstrate that BWC footage enables researchers to contextualize outcomes of police-citizen encounters and other social events of interest. Thus, BWCs offer utility for performance monitoring to assess adherence to various policing policies, including policies around procedural justice.…”