REMARKS
OF
DENISE O’DONNELL
DIRECTOR
BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FOR THE
BJA BODY-WORN TOOLKIT
Denise E. O’Donnell, Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance: Hello, and welcome to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance Body-Worn Camera Website and Toolkit.
Recent national events have highlighted the importance of strong, collaborative relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The national dialogue about these issues has revealed that in many communities, law enforcement agencies have implemented sound and promising best practices that have resulted in effective community policing.
To that point, law enforcement agencies are using body-worn cameras as a promising tool to improve interactions with the public. Evidence indicates that the presence of body-worn cameras helps strengthen accountability and transparency, reduce community complaints, and can assist in de-escalating conflicts, resulting in more constructive encounters between the police and the members of the communities they serve.
But the implementation of a body-worn camera program presents significant opportunities and challenges. Here at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, we want to ensure that we do everything possible to help law enforcement agencies implement body-worn camera programs in a thoughtful way—that builds upon the best research currently available—with input from both criminal justice and community stakeholders.
Keeping with our commitment, this toolkit was designed to provide assistance in not only selecting the technology that best fits a department’s needs, but also to provide resources so that law enforcement can collaboratively establish policies that address privacy, training, and implementation.
This dynamic website consolidates and translates the latest and most cutting-edge research and promising practices, and provides templates and tools–gathered from the field—surrounding implementation, training, funding, and policy. I urge you to browse the toolkit’s rich content.
Because the needs of law enforcement and the community are ever changing, we will continue to update the toolkit so that it is responsive to your needs. Thank you to all of the organizations that provided resources to make this toolkit a reality. And more importantly, thank you for helping us make our communities safer.
