2012
Rialto body camera experiment (2012)
The Rialto, California police department ran the first randomized controlled trial of body cameras. Cambridge researcher Barak Ariel found that officers wearing cameras had significantly fewer use-of-force incidents and complaints than those who did not.
Then
The findings, published in 2015, became the evidence base for camera mandates across the country.
Now
Later studies found smaller effects in some departments, but cameras became standard in most large American police forces.
Why this matters now
The promise that cameras reduce shootings and verify the ones that happen is why lawmakers pressed ICE to deploy them.