Watching the Watchers: Theorizing Cops, Cameras, and Police Legitimacy in the 21st Century
The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy
ISBN: 978-1-78635-030-5, eISBN: 978-1-78635-029-9
Publication date: 10 June 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores the use of video to document police interaction with citizens and its role in the renaissance of a contemporary crisis focused on police use-of-force, race relations, and legitimacy in the United States. The saturation of communication technologies and network access have ushered an era of citizens watching the police, consolidating the new visibility of policing and potentially reorganizing to some degree the power dynamics of traditional police/community relations.
Methodology/approach
The argument is supported through a triangulated analysis that draws on several data sources about video technology use by both citizens and police, media coverage of police shootings, and public opinion on trends in police excessive force.
Findings
The institution of policing is experiencing a legitimacy crisis that is fueled by high-profile police shootings of African Americans by white police officers captured by video technology. The public increasingly expects access to video of police/citizen encounters, which redefines the public’s role in police accountability matters as well as the consequences for police legitimacy.
Originality/value
The theory illuminates the ways in which video has become central to public and official discourse in police use-of-force cases and the problems its presence and absence presents in police/community relations. The ability of citizens to record and widely share video of police encounters is a new development in the ability of citizens and police reform advocates to frame the discourse on police/community relations, accountability, and legitimacy.
Keywords
Citation
Miller, K. (2016), "Watching the Watchers: Theorizing Cops, Cameras, and Police Legitimacy in the 21st Century", The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 257-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-613620160000021014
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited