Differences Between Visual Search Behaviour and Body-Worn Camera Footage During a Use of Force Response by Active-Duty Police Officers

Officers have visual scan strategies and rely on neck and head actions when scanning for threats that provide a wider field of view than a body-worn camera (BWC). The study in the source article determined how an officer’s visual scanning of a simulated use of force encounter differed from digital information captured by BWCs. Officers detected behavioural cues of actual and potential threats in the encounter that the BWCs missed. In fact, eye-tracking glasses worn by officers captured every pre-determined critical event examined by the researchers more frequently than their BWCs. During post-event investigations of use of force incidents, the interpretation of footage from BWCs may lead to faulty conclusions by missing critical events that drive officer actions but are not captured by their BWC.