Police Use of Force Through the Lens

Police Use of Force Through the Lens provides a comprehensive look at video-recorded use-of-force incidents and how video influences perceptions about the appropriateness of the force used. No other book on the market takes a historical, critical, and contemporary look at how video footage from dash cameras, body-worn cameras, surveillance cameras, or handheld cameras influence how people perceive the appropriateness of force used by law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and security officers.

Supported with academic sources along with practical examples that connect academics to the real world, the book educates readers about the history of cameras in law enforcement, significant events that influenced the proliferation of cameras in law enforcement, how use-of-force incidents are evaluated, how camera factors influence perceptions, and how human factors can impact how officers perceive and recall what occurred during use-of-force incidents.

A thorough discussion of the benefits and disadvantages of cameras—including how camera perspectives can be misleading and incomplete—challenges the presumption of the objectiveness of video and posits a systematic framework to help evaluators or viewers of video-recorded use-of-force incidents arrive at more objective conclusions.