In your law enforcement career, how many body-worn camera (BWC) videos have you watched — and how many more will you watch? BWC footage has become a staple of police training, yet few formal guidelines exist for how to use it effectively. This article explores practical ways to improve BWC-based training by shifting to a learning mindset, incorporating “if-then” scenarios, documenting informal training and emphasizing team tactics.
Mindset: Force analysis vs. training
“The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.” — Carol Dweck [1]
There’s a subtle but critical difference between watching a body-worn camera video for force analysis and watching it for training. The two goals can overlap, but confusing them creates inefficiencies that undermine learning. Why do we default to a force-analysis mindset? For officers, maintaining control during use-of-force (UOF) incidents is a matter of survival, and reviewing video from a judgment perspective helps preserve that sense of control. It’s also how much of society — from the news and social media to friends and family — tends to watch BWC footage.
A force analysis is fundamentally evaluative. Its purpose is to determine whether a use of force (UOF) was lawful, within department policy, and to assess the department’s or officer’s potential civil liability.
In contrast, watching a body-worn camera (BWC) video for training is a forward-looking exercise. The focus shifts from judging past actions to asking how officers can apply force more effectively in the future — balancing personal safety, community safety, and respect for human life. As explored below, there are clear advantages to replacing a judgment mindset with a learning mindset.
As leadership expert Marilee Adams notes, “learner questions” are open-minded, curious and creative — they promote progress, discovery and understanding. In contrast, “judger questions” tend to be closed, certain and critical, focusing on problems rather than solutions. The difference is more than semantics: learner questions expand options and drive growth, while judger questions limit perspective and stall progress. [2]
An officer who doesn’t recognize the difference between force analysis and training misses valuable opportunities to grow. A training-focused mindset helps identify practical best practices — both personal and team-based — while turning a single BWC video into multiple “what-if” scenarios that encourage creativity. Viewing footage through this lens better prepares officers to translate new tactics into real-world behavior, sometimes within hours of the review. Supervisors can take it a step further by setting clear expectations: “If this or something similar happens on our shift, I expect…”
A force-analysis mindset limits an officer’s ability to explore alternative scenarios and apply principle-based policing. For example, if you watch a video of an officer responding to a “man with a gun” call, you can adjust the scenario to a “man with an airsoft gun” and discuss how that change would affect your response.
No two police UOF incidents are the same, and using scenario variants allows officers to visualize multiple outcomes rather than just one. Pairing this visualization practice with BWC footage turns a single incident into a powerful training multiplier. Research by Dijkstra et al. supports this approach, showing that visualization activates many of the same neural pathways involved in real perception — meaning mental rehearsal can reinforce learning almost as effectively as actual experience. [3]
An over reliance on the force analysis approach dampens the creativity to brainstorm other tactics, tools and philosophies. Embracing a training-mindset for watching BWC video encourages conversation with partners, promotes tactical flexibility and broadens our UOF perspective. If you have worked patrol long enough, you will notice that the officers who use force with the highest degree of safety and efficiency, balance the science of tactics with the art of creativity – this is highlighted in the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO) podcast at the beginning of every episode: “Tactics are a science and the art is how we apply those tactics.”
If-then training
Loading a BWC video in briefing and watching it as a group has become routine for many patrol teams. Officers gather, play the footage, and hold a roundtable discussion about what happened. While this approach is common, it’s not always the best use of time — or the video’s full training potential.
One of the first tools proposed in this article that supports using BWC for training is “if-then training.” This method works best when an experienced patrol officer facilitates and participants haven’t seen the video before. As physicist Richard Feynman observed, true wisdom lies not just in having the right answers, but in knowing when and how to ask the right questions — a skill essential to effective facilitation. [4] The facilitator plays the BWC video and pauses it just before a critical decision-making point, setting up the discussion.
The facilitator will then tell participants what the suspect is doing while omitting the officer’s decisions in the BWC video, followed by an open-ended question: “What would you do next?” This approach forces officers to think through their available tools and tactics rather than relying on 20/20 hindsight. The success of this method depends heavily on the facilitator’s skill and experience. As adult learning scholar Laura cautions, poorly guided learning experiences — including simulations, role-playing, or critiques — can become “miseducative,” discouraging future learning instead of promoting it. [5]
The key advantage from using “if-then” training is an increased degree of engagement. Additionally, it introduces another element of learning that would otherwise be missed — active experimentation, which includes “what-if” questions. Experiential learning theorist David Kolb’s teaching model known as “Teaching Around the Circle” includes four stages of learning: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualizations, and active experimentations. [6]
Facilitators can further use concrete experience by encouraging participants to share personal stories of past UOF incidents or similar UOF videos. Reflective observations can be incorporated by initiating the participants to ask formulating principle-based questions related to the scenario in the video. Since officers are familiar with using reference guides, the learning mode of abstract conceptualization should be incorporated into BWC training when possible. By blending “what-if” learning with “if-then” questions into BWC video review, officers can best leverage the value provided by prior incidents recorded via bodycam. [6]
Documentation of training
Body-worn camera (BWC) footage has become one of law enforcement’s most valuable training tools — providing real-world examples of officer decision-making in complex, high-pressure situations. Yet despite its potential, much of this informal learning goes undocumented.
To better adapt to the growing use of BWC video for training, departments should implement a monthly curriculum for video review. When an officer or agency goes to court, their primary defense rests on three pillars: training, policy and the law. By establishing a monthly topic focused on one of the twelve most high-liability calls for service, agencies can demonstrate that they are actively preparing officers for real-world scenarios and setting clear expectations for continued learning. As attorney and police legal expert Missy O’Linn notes, consistent, well-documented training is one of the strongest defenses an agency can present in civil litigation. [7]
Consider this: your child’s elementary school follows a clear, structured curriculum. So why do many police departments still lack a training plan for studying what actually happens on the streets? When a training manager is called to testify before a jury, how does that absence of structure appear to jurors?
While most agencies document legally mandated training, many fail to record the informal instruction that happens every day — including BWC video review. In civil litigation, a department’s training records often become a central element of the case. One emerging solution could help agencies formalize this process. TheBWCLibrary.com is designed specifically for officers and instructors. It hosts curated, ad-free body-worn camera videos organized by training category. Each viewing session is time-stamped and logged, allowing users to generate PDF records that show exactly how much time they’ve spent studying particular types of incidents. For example, a force instructor can easily demonstrate continued professional development by documenting total hours spent reviewing force-related footage.
BWC footage is already a cornerstone of modern police training — and its importance will only continue to grow. Future critical incidents will be captured in greater detail, from multiple camera angles and perspectives, creating an unmatched archive of real-world learning opportunities. Departments that start documenting their BWC-based learning today will be better equipped to defend their training — and their officers — tomorrow.
Tactical takeaway
Shift every BWC review from judgment to learning. Use “if-then” facilitation and documented viewing to turn bodycam footage into forward-thinking, scenario-based team training.
Training discussion points
- How can your department distinguish between force analysis and training review when using BWC footage?
- What techniques could facilitators use to ensure productive “if-then” learning experiences?
- How might documenting informal BWC-based training strengthen your agency’s defense in litigation?
- Should agencies share positive BWC videos to balance public perception?
References
1. Dweck CS. (2016). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
2. Adams M. (2012, August). Shifting mindsets: Questions that lead to results. Wharton Executive Education.
3. Dijkstra N, et al. Shared Neural Mechanisms of Visual Perception and Imagery, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 23, Issue 5, 2019, 423-434.
4. Feynman R. (2021, June 30). Knowledge is having the right answers. Intelligence is asking the right questions. Wisdom is knowing when to ask the right questions [Tweet]. X.
5. Bierema LL. (2014). (p. 105) Adult learning: Linking theory and practice: Linking theory and Practice. Jossey-Bass.
6. Kolb DA. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
7. O’Linn M. (2025, February 25). 2025 Civil Liability Update: Use of Force & More [Lecture]. Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
About the author
Stephen Hauck has eight years of experience in various assignments, including police officer, police corporal, force instructor, rangemaster, terrorism liaison officer, SWAT officer and field training officer. Stephen has trained in BJJ for six years and is currently a Purple Belt, a Gracie survival tactics instructor and certified instructor at Gracie University. Stephen embraces innovation in the industry and is the founder of Thebwclibrary.com.
