美国国家公共电台 NPR Body Cam Study Shows No Effect On Police Use Of Force Or Citizen Complaints

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

A wearable camera is increasingly a routine part of police officers' uniforms. That's despite a shortage of solid research on how the technology affects policing. Now a large study in the nation's capital has turned up some unexpected findings. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has our report. And a warning - it contains audio from a violent police encounter that some may find disturbing.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE¹: Washington, D.C., has one of the biggest police forces in the country. All of its uniformed officers now wear cameras. They turn them on when they respond to incidents like this one. 911 callers said a woman was being attacked by her boyfriend, who had a knife.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Put the knife down.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK, OK, OK. He's all right. He's all right.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Go on back. Put the knife down.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He's all right. He's all right.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Put the knife down.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He's all right. He's all right.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The video shows police officers urging the woman to move away as the boyfriend approaches. And then an officer fired.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The man later died. It was Christmas Day. With cameras in D.C. capturing all kinds of police interactions from intense ones like this to routine traffic stops, the question is, have the cameras changed officers' behavior? David Yokum runs a scientific research group in the city government called The Lab @ DC.

DAVID YOKUM: We need science rather than our speculations² about it to try to answer and understand what impacts the cameras are having.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: His team worked with police officials during the cameras' roll out to create two groups - cops randomly³ assigned to get cameras and cops who worked without cameras. There were more than 2,000 officers in all. The study period lasted about seven months. Researcher Anita Ravishankar says they analyzed⁴ how cameras influenced all kinds of stuff - citizen complaints, use of force, whether cases were prosecuted⁵.

ANITA RAVISHANKAR: We found essentially⁶ that we could not detect any statistically⁷ significant effect of the body-worn cameras.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: In this city, the cameras had no discernible impact.

HARLAN YU: This is the most important empirical study on the impact of police body-worn cameras to date.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Harlan Yu is with Upturn⁸, an organization that studies technology and civil rights issues. He says this study is very well done, and maybe cash-strapped police departments should think twice before buying cameras.

YU: Because if cameras don't decrease use of force, don't decrease the number of misconduct complaints and don't change officer behavior, then what are we - what are we adopting cameras for?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Some say cameras could have benefits that weren't captured by this study. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham says his department was surprised by the study's findings. But he worries people will come away thinking the cameras are worthless.

PETER NEWSHAM: I don't think that this study suggests that at all.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says, take that police shooting on Christmas. Some had questioned whether the man who was killed was actually holding a knife. Newsham says the video shows one in his hand.

NEWSHAM: And I think it's really important, you know, for legitimacy⁹ for the police department, which is really kind of the most important thing that we can have, is our legitimacy.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's why he says the cameras are here to stay. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF WOLF AKA BLACK D SONG, "INTRO RADIO SKIT")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 speculations   

n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断

参考例句：

• Your speculations were all quite close to the truth. 你的揣测都很接近于事实。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• This possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. 这种可能性引起了有趣的推测。 来自《用法词典》

3 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

4 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

8 upturn   

n.情况好转

参考例句：

• Experts have forecast an upturn in the stock market.专家已预测股票市场价格有上升趋势。
• The economy is experiencing an upturn.经济正在好转。

9 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。