Being filmed makes officers think twice about their actions: study
Many say citizen surveillance risks putting constraints on legitimate police tactics
We have all seen caught-on-video moments showing what appears to be excessive use of force by a police officer. But how does this increasingly common public monitoring, or the threat of it, affect the police as they go about their work?
That is what Hilary Todd sought to find out. For her master’s thesis, the Simon Fraser University criminology student interviewed a cross-section of 13 officers from different departments in the Lower Mainland to ask about the impact of citizen surveillance. Q What specifically did you find as a result of the study?
A The findings were threefold. The officers I interviewed expressed that they felt they were more likely to hesitate when it came to using justified force, when they felt there was a threat of citizen monitoring. They also expressed that they might not use the force that they’re justified to use at all, because they feel threatened by citizen monitoring.
Also, there is what is known in the policing realm as the FIDO effect — which stands for, ex- cuse my language, fuck-it-and-drive-on. And they felt that in some situations where they were concerned about the presence of citizen monitoring, they may be more likely to think, “It’s not worth it for me to stop.” Q What else stood out for you? A A lot of the cops that I interviewed were seniorlevel officers. They suggested that they felt the impact of citizen monitoring was a lot more prevalent with the newly recruited officer. A lot of them said they would recommend not to get into policing now. If they had kids they would tell them it’s far too risky in terms of li- ability issues. Q Did anyone think citizen surveillance might actually be a good thing? A Initially, a lot of the people that I spoke to said, “Citizen monitoring can be a good thing. We’re not doing anything wrong. We don’t have anything to hide.” But as we spoke for a longer period of time they were more open about the fact that, even though they were outstanding officers, they felt citizen monitoring could capture them in a light that could appear negative to the general public, even though it may not necessarily be that way — because it’s just a snippet. One interesting thing that one officer said put things in perspective for me: For a person to take out their phone and start filming a police incident, something has to draw their attention to the point where they are motivated to do that. Because of that, they don’t capture the lead-up, the interaction that goes on between the officer and the individual involved beforehand. And so the general public is only seeing a portion of the entire incident. Q Were you surprised by any of the findings? A I can’t say that I was surprised. It’s no surprise that people change their behaviour when they’re being watched, so it’s just natural to assume that police officers would change their behaviour, too. As the study progressed, though, I thought a lot about who might be to blame. Citizen monitoring is going to persist — if anything, it’s just going to get more prevalent. And the police officers are doing the best job they can, given the circumstances. The main thing is that there should be a greater level of communication between police departments and the general public, and the media as well. And there needs to be more education in the public in understanding what police officers are up against on a dayto-day basis.