Abstract Police body‐worn cameras (BWCs) generate extensive video data on officer behavior, yet resource constraints mean that only a fraction of this footage is ever reviewed. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) present an opportunity to automate these reviews, potentially influencing police conduct. We evaluate the impact of AI‐led auditing in two pre‐registered, randomized controlled trials conducted within two large US police agencies. The findings are mixed but positive: In a department operating under a consent decree, officers exhibited significant reductions in substandard professionalism, whereas in an agency without external oversight, officers increased the frequency of highly professional interactions. These results show that AI auditing of BWC footage can influence officer behavior, with its effects shaped by organizational and institutional contexts.
Researchers tested whether using artificial intelligence to automatically review police body camera footage could improve officer behavior in two large US police departments. The AI monitoring led to measurable improvements in how professionally officers interacted with the public, though the specific changes varied depending on whether the department was already under court-ordered reform. This suggests that automated review of body camera footage could be a practical tool for police accountability, helping departments better supervise officers when they can’t manually review the millions of hours of video recorded each year.
(AI-generated summary, v1, January 2026)
Citations: 0 (as of January 2026)