It is a common belief that BWC's main function is to deter the community and the police from engaging in physical altercations.
However, my interview with Chief Giacomo Sacca made me think otherwise.
BWC's are actually correlated to an increase in physical altercations according to Sacca's research in his Naval Post-Graduate thesis. This correlation is likely due to the mentality which simply "checks the boxes" rather than emphasizes human connection and de-escalation tactics. When an officer has a camera which captures the them following the law leading to an arrest, the officer feels a sense of security in knowing that they did the right thing and will move faster towards an arrest rather than focus on de-escalation. To combat this, officers are getting trained to recognize and change this behavior when interacting the public.
You can watch my interview with Chief Saca on my Youtube channel.