Body Worn Camera
Overview
Body worn cameras are small recording devices that are attached to a police officer’s uniform and are used to capture video evidence while in the field. About 47% of law enforcement agencies in the US use body worn cameras but that number is expected to increase as more and more states mandate it as a requirement.
Role
Research, Storyboarding, Information Architect, UX/UI Design, Prototyping
Tools
Figma, Draw.io, Zoom
Problem
Currently video footage that is taken by body worn cameras isn’t accessible right away and officers have to go back to the station, dock the camera, and upload the video to a computer or server before they are able to review the footage.
Objectives
Identify how patrol officers use body worn cameras, when they are used and to what extent they are used during the case reporting process
Make footage recorded on the body worn camera immediately accessible to the patrol officer
Cut down the time patrol officers spend filling out case reports.
Design Process
Research & Discovery
Since Body worn cameras are mostly used by officers in the field we knew right away that we wanted to focus on them as our main user. We conducted several interviews with officers from a variety of law enforcement agencies across the country. We talked with officers from both small and medium-large agencies who were and weren’t currently using body worn camera devices and documented their day-to-day workflows, pain points and needs. We came up with two distinct goals that helped us focus our user’s objects and motivations.
Further Findings
Apart from defining our user’s goals and pain points we were able to document supporting data to help better understand how body worn cameras are used.
One of the questions we had was how many videos does is officer upload per day? On a slow day an officer may not get dispatched or need to respond to any incidents during their shift and so may not need to record anything that day. The opposite could also be true and they may take several videos from various incidents or interacting with civilians. Our research found that on average about 10 videos were uploaded per officer per day.
The second piece of data that we found particularly interesting was what percentage of officers started filling out case report in the field? This is usually dependent on agency regulations and if they are equipped to fill out case report in the field, via a laptop in their cruiser or would have to do so back at the agency. For the agencies that allowed it, we found that on average 80% of officers started their case report process in the field, sometimes before even leaving the scene. This meant that it was crucial for patrol officers to have access to all information pertaining to their case report. Including footage from their body worn camera.
Identify
After our initial research I was able to create a set of storyboards showcasing how a patrol officer uses a body worn camera. The first storyboard depicts how they are currently using the devices and is based on real life examples that were gathered during our user interviews. The second storyboard depicts a future scenario and an idealized way that the body worn cameras could be more efficient to officers.
Design
User Flows
I found that mapping out a user flow helped plan out the steps a user will take as well as where different branching paths would occur and if those paths would lead to the same outcome or not. I find that creating user flows also helps organize different points in the user’s experience to see if any patterns emerge
Design Considerations
The body camera device itself does not have a screen and currently the only way to upload videos directly from the device to the cloud was by docking it back at the station. So in order for officers to be able to access newly recorded footage we needed a way to access that video footage right from the camera device.
Another thing to note about the camera is that it is continuously recording throughout an officer’s shift. We call this passive recording. When an officer responds to an incident or interacts with a civilian (like pulling someone over in a traffic stop), then the camera will start a recording that will be saved and uploaded to the cloud. We call this active recording.
Timeline Explorations
It was apparent after the first rounds of designs that having a simple list of recorded videos wasn’t going to be enough for police officers to rely on. I needed to find a way for the user to be able to access passive and active recordings from the camera and so the idea of the timeline was introduced. Another thing I noted was that the body worn camera can only record one video at a time and was only able to begin a new recording once a previous one was finished. This meant that displaying all recording in chronological order made the most sense. I looked at other apps that utilized video timelines like Ring and Photos for iOS and found a timeline pattern within our own design system.
