After George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis in 2020, police body-worn cameras (BWCs) were promoted as a way to increase transparency and accountability. This thesis examines whether BWCs in Minneapolis have supported those goals or functioned more as surveillance. While cameras are meant to discourage misconduct and document encounters, civil liberties groups warn that without oversight they risk unfairly monitoring communities, delaying accountability, and undermining privacy.

Using secondary sources—policy documents, audits, investigations, and human rights reports—the study applies a human-rights rubric testing legality, necessity, proportionality, accountability, and non-discrimination. The findings show that BWCs offer some potential for transparency, but weak enforcement and limited oversight reduce their impact. Ultimately, BWCs can support accountability only when embedded in stronger institutional reforms; without this, they risk reinforcing existing inequalities rather than protecting rights.