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35 Crim. Just. Stud. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/cjscj35 and id is 1 raw text is: CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDIES Routledge 2022, VOL. 35, NO. 1, 1-17 https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2021.1910507 Taylor & Francis Group ARTICLE Investigating the influence of institutional perviousness on the adoption of body-worn cameras by United States police agencies Nathaniel Lawshe, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Abstract Received 18 January 2021 There is evidence that body-worn cameras decrease rates of Accepted 26 March 2021 police use of force and improve citizens' perceptions of police KEYWORDS legitimacy. Yet, research examining the processes leading agencies Policing; body-worn to adopt body-worn cameras is sparse. Using the 2013 Law cameras; perviousness; Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) organizational studies data from U.S. police agencies of all sizes, this study examines the relevance of institutional perviousness for body-worn camera adop- tion. Perviousness governs the chances that an organization adopts a new policy or practice, as well as the extent to which an organiza- tion is internally aligned to implement the new innovation. Results demonstrate that perviousness increases the odds of agency body- worn camera adoption, alongside other organizational characteris- tics. The findings suggest that future research should consider the potential impact of perviousness when investigating other organi- zational outputs. Introduction The use of body-worn cameras by police agencies in the United States has increased significantly in the past decade. The 2013 LEMAS survey indicated that 27% of law enforcement agencies used body-worn cameras on patrol officers during normal duties. Just three years later, approximately half of the 15,328 law enforcement agencies sampled in the 2016 LEMAS body-worn camera supplement indicated that they had acquired body-worn cameras in some form (Hyland, 2018). The rate of body-worn camera adoption was generally consistent across local police departments (48%) and sheriff's offices (46%) (Hyland, 2018). Furthermore, the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing high- lighted body-worn cameras as a critical tool to create a more transparent and accountable police force. Pressure from the Task Force, in addition to numerous high-profile lethal use of force events, prompted law enforcement to seriously consider body-worn camera adoption. The call for body-worn cameras (and more transparency) is typically supported CONTACT Nathaniel Lawshe ® lawshe.n@northeastern.edu O Northeastern University, 204 Churchill, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group