Now, this is just one study, but it's sizable and relevant to the discussion.
The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial
From Conclusions:
Quote:
Based on evidencecollected in this randomized controlled field trial, our findings suggest that police body-worn-cameras reduce the prevalence of use-of-force by the police as well as the incidence of citizens’ complaints against the police. However, this is but one experiment and before this policy is considered more widely, police forces, goverments and researchers should invest further time and effort in replicating these findings.
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From research limitations:
Quote:
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More broadly, we do not know on which party in an encounter the cameras have had an effect on, or how the two effects—on officers and on suspects—interact. This means that the estimated causal effect on officers’ use-of-force conflates these mechanisms: Do cameras affect the conduct of suspects, which then moderates the need of officers to react with force to such behavior? Or do cameras affect the conduct of officers, who might have otherwise acted with unnecessary or excessive force regardless of the suspects’ demeanor? Does it have a double effect?
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Of course as far as policy goes the exact mechanism does not really matter that much, as everybody gets what they want. Less use of force by police for the people who think police are using too much force, less complaints for the people who believe the accusations are mostly groundless.
Go body cameras.