In early August of 2012, Police1 presented law enforcement officers with a sponsored survey on police video. We have posted the results to the survey below. They represent a poll of 313 law enforcement officers.
Highlights:
• 72.6% of LEOs would prefer a body (chest) mounted camera.
• TASER (50.9%), Panasonic (28.3%), Digital Ally (22.7%) and VIEVU (15.2%) were among the top most recognizable officer worn camera manufacturers.
• LEOs consider durability the most important feature of an officer worn system (94.4%).
• 86.3% believe that if grant assistance was available, their agencies would be more inclined to use an officer worn and/or in-car video system.
• 69.3% of those surveyed are not planning to deploy an officer worn solution in the near future.
What type of video solutions does your agency currently use?
Summary: 49.5% of LEOs’ agencies use in-car/dash cameras and 33.1% of LEOs answered that their agencies do not have a video solution at all.
Does your agency currently have a back-end data management solution to manage video files?
Summary: 73.3% of LEOs stated their agencies have a back-end data management solution for their video files.
How would you rank the importance of chain-of-custody in regards to your video evidence management solution?
Summary: Chain-of-custody management in regards to video management was ranked very important (62.1%) and important (27.7%) by a majority of surveyed LEOs.
Do you feel that either officer worn cameras or in-car video systems are more effective?
Summary: 62.8% of LEOs believe that officer worn cameras and in-car video systems are equally effective.
Are you satisfied with your agency’s current video solution?
Summary: 57.8% of LEOs stated they were satisfied with their agency’s current video solutions.
Is your agency considering/evaluating an officer worn camera solution, if it currently does not have one?
Summary: 60.3% of LEOs stated their agencies are not considering an officer worn camera solution (and do not already have one).
If your agency plans to deploy an officer worn video solution, what is the timeframe?
Summary: 69.3% of LEOs stated their agencies are not planning to deploy an officer worn solution in the near future. 12.3% believe their agencies will deploy an officer worn video system one year or later.
If you were using an officer worn video solution on duty, would you prefer:
Summary: 72.6% of surveyed LEOs would prefer a body (chest) mounted camera over a head mounted camera (7.2%) or an accessory mounted camera (20.2%).
If grant assistance were available for officer worn and/or in-car video systems, would your agency be more inclined to use them?
Summary: 86.3% believe that if grant assistance was available for officer worn or in-car video systems, their agency would be more inclined to use them.
Are you familiar with any of these officer worn camera manufacturers?
Summary: TASER (50.9%), Panasonic (28.3%), Digital Ally (22.7%), Scorpion (19%) and VIEVU (15.2%) were among the top most recognizable officer worn camera manufacturers.
What do you consider the most important features of an officer worn system?
Summary: LEOs consider brand name (7.3%) the least important factor in an officer worn system, and durability (94.4%) and quality of video files (91%) the most important factors.
What is your current (or highest) rank?
Summary: Officers (36.9%), Sergeants (13.8%), Deputy (8.3%) and Detective (6.4%) were among the most frequent groups who took the survey.
What is the total number of sworn officers in your agency?
Summary: 26% of LEOs who took the survey have between 1 and 25 sworn officers in their agency, and 21.8% have over 250 sworn officers in their agency.
For more information and resources on police video, visit these sections:
• Body Cameras
• Cameras
• In Car Video
• Video Analysis
• Video Surveillance
• Tactical Video
For more information on Police Grants and access to Free Grant Assistance for your department, visit PoliceGrantsHelp.com.