Body worn video (police equipment) prepared for the United States Department of Justice in 2016 is that body worn cameras "are cameras with at least one microphone and internal data storage, and allow audio/video footage to be stored and analyzed with compatible software. The cameras are typically located on the police officer's chest or head". Wearable cameras are often utilized by law enforcement to record their interactions with the public or gather video evidence at crime scenes. Current body cameras are much lighter and smaller than the first experiments with wearable cameras as early as 1998. There are several types of body cameras made by
Body worn video enforcement's use of body-worn cameras found that incidents where police used force and formal misconduct complaints decreased significantly; scholars of crime were unsure to what extent body-worn cameras played a role in the decline, but noted that the results were consistent with trends in other cities were cameras have been introduced. Howard M. Wasserman has identified several other limitations. Adopting body worn video can have unintended outcomes. In particular, increased transparency can create over-deterrence: when officers know they are being recorded, they will only do the minimum required. Another limitation is the video evidence. Video doesn’t always ‘speak for itself’