Body-worn and in-car cameras
Recording devices worn by officers or mounted in vehicles, with footage stored in vendor-controlled cloud platforms increasingly integrated with analytics and real-time surveillance systems.
What they are / How they work
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small video/audio recorders clipped to an officer's chest or shoulder. In-car (dashcam) units mount behind the windshield or on the push bar. Both activate automatically on certain triggers—drawing a weapon, turning on lights and sirens, exiting the vehicle—or manually. Footage is typically uploaded via docking station or Wi-Fi to a vendor-managed cloud platform.
Modern platforms store footage with GPS coordinates, officer ID, incident type, and metadata that enables rapid search across large archives. Retention periods and release policies vary widely by jurisdiction and are controlled primarily by law enforcement agencies, not the public.
BWCs were widely promoted as an accountability reform after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. Research on whether they reduce use of force or complaints is mixed at best; adoption has been near-universal among larger US departments regardless.
Risks and concerns
Footage is controlled by police and their vendors. Agencies decide when to activate cameras, what to release, and how long to retain recordings. Integration with AI analytics platforms means footage can be mined for faces, license plates, voices, and behavioral patterns—turning an accountability tool into a mass intelligence-collection system.
Axon, the dominant BWC vendor, also sells facial recognition, Tasers, drones, and records management software. The vertical integration means footage captured for accountability flows directly into the same company's broader surveillance product suite. Axon's AI Ethics Board resigned en masse in 2022 over the company's plans to add facial recognition to BWCs.
Hardware vendors
- Axon (formerly TASER International) – Body 3, Body 4 cameras; dominant US market share with roughly 60–70% of large departments
- Motorola Solutions (Watchguard) – V300 and VISTA body cameras; in-car camera systems widely deployed in patrol vehicles
- Motorola Solutions (Pelco) – in-car video systems
- Utility Inc. / Axon Fleet – in-car cameras integrated with cloud evidence management
- Getac Video Solutions (formerly Buddycom / BodyWorn) – rugged body cameras
Software and cloud platforms
- Evidence.com (Axon) – cloud platform for storing, tagging, redacting, and sharing BWC footage; also houses Axon Records (RMS) and Axon Dispatch
- Motorola CommandCentral Vault – cloud evidence management for Motorola BWC customers
- Fusus / Genetec – real-time crime center platforms that can ingest live BWC streams alongside fixed cameras and ALPR
- Briefcam (Canon) – video synopsis and analytics; can process BWC archives to extract faces, license plates, and object data at scale