Making sense of body-worn cameras as a violence prevention tool for ambulance staff Reflections and policy implications from a non-systematic literature review

Abstract

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) were introduced for ambulance crews in England in 2021 in response to rising rates of abuse targeted towards ambulance crews by members of the public. As part of an evaluation of the effectiveness of BWCs as a tool for reducing occupational violence, we produced a non-systematic literature review to examine the real-world outcomes and cost-effectiveness of BWCs in a variety of settings and countries. Our review identified minimal literature on the topic pertaining to the ambulance sector. While there is considerable evidence relating to BWCs and violence prevention more generally, much of it is poor quality, anecdotal, and focused on specific professions with limited scope for making generalisations. There is some evidence that BWCs have the potential to address violence and abuse directed towards ambulance staff. However, our analysis of costs and benefits also raises questions about evidence concerning the value of BWCs and their potential negative impacts on staff wellbeing. The literature is unclear about the underlying mechanisms through which BWCs might support violence reduction, and it is likely that any benefits will be mediated by the complex and unpredictable environment in which BWCs are being used, which is likely to have strong independent effects on outcomes. The more that BWC research is able to explore such mechanisms in detail to inform our understanding of how and under what conditions specific outcomes are observed, the more we will be able to make sense of the variable findings produced in this area to date.