Police Visibility : Privacy , Surveillance , and the False Promise of Body-Worn Cameras

“Civilizing police-citizen interaction” has been the main motivation to implement BWCs (particularly in the US). However, as argued by Bryce Clayton Newell, despite the association of body-worn cameras (BWCs) to notions of police accountability and transparency, these technologies also “sparked outrage” and have increased police power and police-citizen divisions (p. 1). ‘Police Visibility’ is a much well-needed reflective book that deconstructs common ‘pro-camera’ narratives focused on BWCs as accountability and transparency tools to “the benefit of the public”. As stated by Newell, “in practice (. . . ) these cameras serve the coercive aims of the state” (p. 2). By challenging common conceptions of BWCs as objective and transparent, the author develops an argument on how to regulate these cameras and their footage. From limiting the potential for BWCs to increase police power to enhancing access to information by the public, there is a focus in the book on the need for regulation of police surveillance powers. This analysis is supported by theories of freedom and the notion of “antipower” (Pettit, 1996) that situate these cameras as potentially leading to state domination. Indeed, the adoption of BWCs is “largely about the state managing its image and controlling its visibility to the public” (p. 15). This book is a vital contribution to the emerging literature on BWCs and it addresses the public visibility of police work and how BWCs impact police practice and police-public interactions. As stated by Newell, “usage of the cameras may end up significantly impacting the nature of police-civilian interactions in ways not intended or even envisioned at the time the technology was deployed” (p. 14 and 15). By making both police and citizens more visible, police cameras allow changes not only in police work but also in ‘information politics’, playing a role in power relationships and the balance between privacy and transparency. The long-term effects of BWCs, their privacy considerations, and the impacts on police officers’ behaviour are thoroughly discussed in ‘Police Visibility’. Overall, this book is about the increase of technologically mediated forms of police visibility. When considering police-civilian encounters, Newell presents the notion of ‘collateral visibility’ (Newell, 2017) and its impacts on those the police more often (and disproportionately) interact with (e.g. marginalised, minority groups). As police cameras enhance collateral forms of visibility, issues such as footage control (an independent body is suggested) or the lack of spatial limitation on the use of these cameras (as they can be used anywhere, namely in private properties) are particularly relevant. In the first chapter, Newell introduces the concepts of visibility and surveillance to further contextualise the role played by informational power. The section ‘surveillance in theory and practice’ illustrates the different ways of watching (the other or the self ) and how the recording device can change behaviour (social control). Several notions are presented in this section: from surveillance to sousveillance, panopticon and synopticon, inverse surveillance, ‘counter-surveillance’, surveillance assemblage, vertical/horizontal surveillance, symmetrical/asymmetrical surveillance (Mark, 2005) and social sorting, highlighting the discriminatory effects of surveillance. As mentioned by Newell, considering BWCs “constitute top-down,