Filming and Being Filmed

This article considers police work as it is filmed or photographed in the streets, and the dissemination of these (audio)visual documents on online sharing platforms. Based on an ethnographic study in a large North American urban police force, the authors show how sousveillance of the police by the public strongly influences professional perceptions of officers in uniform and modifies their understanding of the situations in which they intervene. Subjected to the gaze of crowds equipped with miniature cameras, and themselves producers of images by means of embedded devices (in their vehicles or attached to their uniforms), police are supposed to be more able to report and communicate on their actions. Between informing the public, debating police actions, and self-promotion by the police, the article examines this role of images and highlights the major change in police visibility that it entails.