Management of Digital Evidence: Police Judgment about Ethical Use of Body Worn Camera

Body Worn Camera (BWC) is an emergent technology that has recently started to be used in law enforcement. Although there are many expected benefits from adopting and implementing BWC, potential negative outcomes also exist, such as loss of public privacy or failure of proper management of digital evidence. In this research, we focus on police officers’ judgement about ethical use of BWC. Our preliminary results show that Interactional justice and police subculture are positively associated with police job satisfaction. Further, perceived risk of using BWC and job satisfaction are positively related with police officers’ judgement about ethical use of BWC. Understanding judgments about ethical use of newly adopted IT-artifacts will assist in development of policies and help in the provision of actionable guidelines. Specifically, having clear and well-developed policies regarding the BWC based on the organization, moral issues, and individual characteristics, is crucial for successful implementation. Introduction Body Worn Camera (BWC) is an emergent technology that has recently started to be used in law enforcement. Law enforcement authorities expect that the use of BWC will have the benefits of increase in transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, and subsequently enhance public & officer safety as well as improve policing practices (Miller and Toliver 2014). However, potential negative outcomes of the use may range from loss of citizen privacy to misuse of recorded data. The Police Executive Research Forum has reported that approximately 33% of agencies have started using BWC. However in 2015, only 11 agencies had BWC policies that were publicly available. Moreover, the available polices rather focus on addressing the need of adapting BWC (Miller and Toliver 2014). Thus, clear and well-developed written policies regarding on how to properly handle BWC and the information collected still do not exist, as of the writing of this paper (May 8, 2016). Therefore, law enforcement agents have to use their judgement in using BWC ethically for achieving the above mentioned societal benefits. For several decades, many researchers have sought to examine factors influencing ethical behavior in the workplace setting. Trevino (1986) mentioned that behavioral ethics has become a necessary domain of social science. Information systems (IS) researchers have studied factors that impact ethical behavior intentions or behavior related to IS. These include computer abuse, IS misuse intention, IS compliance intention, and moral judgment related to computer abuse (D'Arcy et al. 2009; Harrington 1996; Herath and Rao 2009; Lowry et al. 2015). In this research in progress paper, we focus on police agents’ judgement about ethical use of BWC regarding the potential of privacy violations. We applied scenario based survey methodology and 146 current/past police officers answered our questionnaire. Based on their answers we could empirically test our research model. Understanding law enforcement agents’ judgments about ethical use of newly Judgement about Ethical Use of BWC Digital Evidence Thirty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems, Dublin 2016 2 adopted IT artifacts will assist in development of policies and help in the provision of actionable guidelines. The rest of this research in progress is organized as follows: First, we discuss the background of BWC. Next, we develop research hypotheses based on the prior literature on ethical judgement. Then we suggest a conceptual research model and provide preliminary results of this research. Finally, we conclude this research in progress with discussion, implication, limitations and future research. By the time of ICIS, we will have complete survey data and be able to present a full paper. Related Research and Hypothesis Development Policing activity has been spotlighted as a problematic issue recently and the call for transforming to modern policing by utilizing IT is emphasizing (Coudert et al. 2015). Law enforcement agencies have started to implement cameras such as In-car camera, Body Worn Camera) as an important part of their policing activity for street surveillance purposes and to closely record policing activities (Jennings et al. 2014). Eric Garner’s tragedy in New York City and the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, Missouri, have triggered the discussion and implementation of police cameras (Jennings et al. 2015). In addition to these incident, recent incidents between police officers and public also generated the interest about police cameras. In-car cameras have been used to record police-citizen encounters for law enforcement purposes. Over time, police departments discovered benefits of in-car cameras such as increased officer safety, video evidence for internal investigations, and documentation of citizens’ behavior. (IACP 2014). In-car cameras have had some shortcomings such as limited vision and location. Based on this experience, law enforcement agencies anticipate that BWC can not only provide benefits similar to the in-car camera, but more so, by recording advanced and detailed information with the new technology. According to the (Bud 2016), BWC is a unique surveillance device containing both mobility and flexibility features. Law enforcement agencies expect the BWC can “help improve the high-quality public service expected of police officers and promote the perceived legitimacy and sense of procedural justice that communities have about their police departments. (Wexler 2014, p. V.)” We examine the factors that may influence police officer’s judgement about ethical use of BWC. We explore the impact of four factors of organization justice (Procedural, Distributive, Interpersonal, and Informational justice) (Colquitt et al. 2015) on police officers’ judgement about ethical use of BWC. In addition, we study the impact of BWC related risk and benefit on judgement about ethical use of IT artifact as well as the impact of police subculture on police job satisfaction. According to Kish-Gephart et al. (2010b), three categories of antecedents of ethical judgement exist. These include Moral Issue Characteristics, Organizational Environment Characteristics and Individual Characteristics. In this research, we have applied these characteristics as the basis of our conceptual model and each factor has been adapted in the context of law enforcement agents’ BWC usage. Judgment about Ethical Use (Management of Digital Evidence) Ethical behavior in organizations relates to conduct that is deemed fair and just, above and beyond constitutional laws and government regulations. In a study of law enforcement agents by Newburn (2015), Misuse of System, Unauthorized disclosure, and Abuse of Authority were the most common misconduct. Although these types of misconduct were general policy misconduct, these kinds of police misconduct need to be considered in any technology related policing context, particularly newly adopted IT artifacts. In 2014, there were only 11 BWC policies publicly available and some policies were simply recommendations. As a result, we would anticipate that judgement regarding ethical BWC usage can be influenced by police officers’ perceptions as well as the degree of detail in BWC policy. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on law enforcement agents’ judgments about ethical use of BWC regarding potential violations of citizens’ privacy. This judgement about ethical use / management of digital evidence can be explained as law enforcement agents’ ethical concern about the management of digital evidence. We draw on this literature to construct gray scenarios (not clear violation of the existing BWC policies) about potential misconduct in the context of BWC in order to garner perceptions of police officers regarding the moral issues therein. Judgement about Ethical Use of BWC Digital Evidence Thirty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems, Dublin 2016 3 Moral Issue Characteristics Organizational Justice Colquitt (2001) explored factors of organizational justice in terms of distributive, procedural interpersonal, and informational justice that need to be distinctively measured. According to Colquitt (2001), “Distributive Justice” (Leventhal 1976) focuses on the perceived fairness regarding equity or equality of decision outcomes (payment, rewards, evaluations, promotions, or assignments etc.). Instead of focusing on decision outcomes, procedural justice focuses on the process that reach the decisions. It reflects the processes’ fairness, consistency, accuracy, objectiveness, representation, ethicality, as well as openness to voice and input (Leventhal et al. 1980). Interactional justice has been seen as two separate factors that consisting of interpersonal and informational justice (Greenberg and Cropanzano 1993). Interpersonal justice reflects the degree of level of treatment regarding politeness, dignity and respect when procedurally executed. whereas, informational justice more focuses on degree of justification and truthfulness regarding information or explanations provided during procedures (Colquitt and Rodell 2011). Job Satisfaction According to (Nadiri and Tanova 2010), many organization behavior researchers have studied relationship between two organizational justice (procedural and distributive) and work related outcomes such as job satisfaction, turnover intention, and commitment at the private company related settings and provided insightful academic and practical implications (Alexander and Ruderman 1987; McFarlin and Sweeney 1992; Sweeney and McFarlin 1997). “Job satisfaction” is described as “individual’s positive emotional reaction to particular job (Oshagbemi 2000, p. 331). ” and it can be increased by justice factors (Gill 2008; McFarlin and Sweeney 1992). In this study, we investigate the relation between 4 factors of justice and job satisfaction in police organizational setting. Scaramella et al. (2010) recommende