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The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that drive officer support for body-worn cameras (BWCs).

Results of an officer perceptions survey completed as part of an evaluation of the Chicago Police Department’s BWC project are presented. The influence of treatment- and outcome-oriented justice concerns on officer support for BWCs is explored with a variety of covariates.

Outcome-oriented concerns are a significant predictor of officer support for BWCs, while treatment-oriented concerns are not.

The research enhances understandings of the applicability of procedural justice theorizing in policing generally, and offers direction important to the meaningful use of BWCs.

This finding runs counter to dominant relational models of procedural justice that concentrate on the perspective of subordinates, but lends support to arguments advocating the centrality of role (authority vs subordinate) in the formation of justice evaluations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore institutional realities and public perceptions of police use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Canada in relation to each other, drawing attention to areas of public misunderstanding and concern.

Public perceptions data are drawn from a national survey (n=3,045) of UAV use. Institutional realities data are drawn from content analyses of all Special Flight Operation Certificates issued by Transport Canada from 2007 to 2012 and flight logs of a regional service kept from 2011 to 2013. Officer interviews (n=2) also provide qualitative insights on institutional realities from this same regional service.

The data reveal disparities between institutional realities and public perceptions. Although federal, provincial and regional services currently use UAVs, awareness of police use of UAVs relative to traditionally piloted aircraft was low. Further, support for police use of UAVs was significantly lower than traditionally piloted craft; but, support also varied considerably across UAV applications, with the greatest opposition tied to tasks for which police do not report using UAVs and the greatest support tied to tasks for which police report using UAVs.

This research provides previously unknown descriptive data on the institutional realities of police use of UAVs in Canada, positioning that knowledge in relation to public perceptions of police use of the technology. The findings raise concerns over how UAVs may negatively shape police/civilian relations based on procedural justice literature which demonstrates that a lack of public support for the technology may affect the police more broadly.

Police were key to enforcing and managing COVID-19 emergency orders, but many police services were not prepared for such an emergency. In Ontario, Canada, each service was responsible for crafting its own procedures for responding to the pandemic. This study synthesizes changes documented by Ontario-based services.

We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of COVID-19-related documents (e.g. emails, guides and recommendations, orders, directives, policies and procedures, questionnaires and checklists and strategic plans) produced by 14 municipal police services across Ontario, Canada.

The documents reveal ways that police services were affected by the pandemic. These changes are organized into four themes: intra-organizational changes, officer wellness, inter-agency coordination and collaboration and community-police relations.

The study works with data from multiple police services to document the range of ways that policing changed to adapt to the pandemic. Understanding how police services navigated the pandemic facilitates preparedness for future civil emergencies.

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are quickly becoming standardized police equipment. Axon Enterprise, a United States company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is currently the worldwide purveyor of BWCs having near-complete control over the police body camera market. In 2012, the company launched their Axon Flex body camera alongside claims about the efficacy of these devices. While the research is expanding, scholarship has yet to explore the role that stakeholders like Axon may play in the implementation of body cameras across police services. This empirical chapter examines claims made by Axon in media in relation to the efficacy of their body cameras over a six-year period (2012–2018). Three themes relative to our analysis of Axon claims emerged: officer and community safety; cost and officer efficiency; and accountability and transparency. A basic finding that cut across all three themes is that most of Axon's claims appear to be shaped by beliefs and assumptions. We also found that Axon's claims were mostly predicated on the market (i.e., financial considerations), rather than say scientifically or legally grounded. Some suggestions for future research are noted.