Body camera
video camera worn on the body
A body camera, bodycam, body-worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system.
Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known use is as a police body camera. Other uses include action cameras for social and recreational (including cycling), within the world of commerce, in healthcare and medical use, in military use, journalism, citizen sousveillance, and covert surveillance. Action cameras are therefore typically compact, rugged, and waterproof at the surface level. They typically use CMOS image sensors, and can take photos in burst mode and time-lapse mode as well as record high-definition video (as of 2019, mid-range to high-end action cameras can record 4K video at 60 fps). Slow-motion video recording at 120 or 240 fps is also a common feature.
Research on the impact of body-worn cameras for law enforcement shows mixed evidence as to their impact on the use of force by law enforcement and communities' trust in police. The publicized deaths of black Americans at the hands of police has been a large factor increasing support for body worn cameras by police personnel. For decades people have protested police by watching them stemming from long term unhappiness with the system, and social media has only bolstered this behavior from the public.
Designs
Body-worn cameras are often designed to be worn in one of three locations: on the torso, on or built into a helmet, and on or built into glasses.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Body camera” as video camera worn on the body. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as video camera worn on the body. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17020273. The Library of Congress control number is sh2008002724. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Body camera” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.