The Role of Institutional Perviousness in Police Agency Adoption of Body-Worn Cameras

• In Event: Body-Worn Cameras: Factors Shaping Organizational Implementation and Change

Abstract

Many police departments have rapidly adopted body-worn cameras in response to community demands for increased accountability and transparency in encounters with police officers. Scholarship has focused primarily on the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in lowering use of force and complaints against police. Scant research considers the organizational and institutional influences on agency decisions to adopt body-worn cameras. The current study investigates the effects of multiple factors such as organizational complexity and control as well as measures of institutional perviousness on the adoption of body-worn camera technology by U.S. police departments. This study uses 2013 LEMAS (Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics) data to construct variables that measure organizational and institutional variations across police departments. It is hypothesized that organizational perviousness will be associated with increased agency body-worn camera adoption. The extent of perviousness signals that an agency will possess more internal alignment with innovation and have more willingness to listen to the surrounding community. Results from a series of logistic regression models suggest institutional perviousness influences police agency decisions to adopt body-worn cameras. Future research should recognize the importance of institutional perviousness in agency decision-making when studying the diffusion of police innovations.

Authors

• Nathaniel Lawshe, Northeastern University

• Gregory M. Zimmerman, Northeastern University