RT Article
T1 ‘Robocops’ in the Making: Reframing Police-Citizen Interactions Through the Lens of Body-Worn Cameras
JF The British journal of criminology
VO 64
IS 3
SP 744
OP 760
A1 Campeau, Holly
A2 Keesman, Laura D.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1892105713
AB This paper examines new meanings that police-citizen interactions take on when officers make sense of them through the lens of body-worn cameras (BWCs). Drawing on 30 interviews with frontline police officers in a large Canadian city, we analyse the embodied character of BWCs to show how officers reframe their role and the subtleties of their approach in dealing with the public as more robotic. First, the participants believe BWCs curb their ability to build rapport with citizens, and therefore dehumanize interactions. Second, they report a need to operate more mechanically to follow protocol for case-building and use-of-force. Still, 100 per cent of participants remain in favour of BWC use—in an era of high visibility and pressure for accountability, video recording technology offers protection.
DO 10.1093/bjc/azad059