Body-worn cameras as a new tool in Latin American police forces

Body-worn cameras are rapidly becoming a familiar tool in contemporary police forces’ arsenals. This eagerness for a technological “fix” to the distinguishable crisis in police legitimacy is understandable as it is significantly more affordable to administer than solving more endemic democratic and societal issues such as unwarranted use of force, corruption, lack of transparency etc. Indeed, police organisations differ intrinsically from many other organisations in that they monopolise the legitimate use of force, however, this distinctive feature of policing inevitably exposes law enforcement officers to controversy. The rapid dissemination of video technology within the general public has placed substantial pressure on police departments to develop their own video response for crime control purposes. Consequently, body-worn cameras are perceived as a panacea to increase officer compliance with protocols, as a move to reinforce police professionalisation and as the “ultimate witness”. Their swift dissemination in Anglo-Saxon countries since 2005 accelerated the technology’s adoption in Latin American police forces. Such is the case in Colombia, which began to implement body-worn cameras in 2018, when the Medellín Police Department acquired 90 devices. Chile and Argentina followed suit in 2020 by respectively purchasing 600 and 720 body-worn cameras. By 2021 at least 168 Mexican police headquarters were already equipped with body-worn cameras, covering 45% of the country’s population. In the same vein, the São Paulo State Military Police acquired 7,000 devices in 2021 after studying the devices for seven years. Since then, many more Latin American police departments have implemented or are actively considering implementing body-worn cameras. This talk will aim to uncover the reasons underpinning body-worn camera implementation in three Latin American countries, the results achieved so far and the technology’s long-term potential of improving the track record of police forces acting within modern democratic practices.