Lights, Camera, Redaction. Police Body-Worn Cameras: Autonomy, Discretion and Accountability

Abstract

The sun beats down on a hot and sticky afternoon in Oklahoma City, September 2015. A police officer fitted with a body-worn camera is giving chase to a man who has allegedly robbed a general store armed with a knife. The assailant runs into dense grassland and falls to the ground. The pursuing officer incapacitates him with a Taser, following which another officer kneels on him and secures his hands behind his back with handcuffs. Several further officers arrive at the scene. As the man lies face down on the ground, “Turn it off,” comes the whispered order from the handcuffing officer. The assailant succumbs to a black leather boot to the neck as the officer wearing the camera turns his back on what’s happening, thus preventing the scene from being fully captured. Audible cries are heard from the restrained assailant but the majority of the remaining footage is not of the altercation, but rather, the surrounding trees and grassland.1 Show more