Accountability by Camera: Online Video’s Effects on Police-Civilian Interactions

Online video can bypass police jurisdictional influence over traditional mass media and may be affecting police-civilian interactions in American public space as the initial cusp of a paradigm shift. Where a camera may have videorecorded police actions, exclusive police custody of that camera or its recording correlates with the video being lost, destroyed, reported as nonexistent, or concealed from the public. Where police destroy, falsify, fail to file, or omit data from required documentation, online video correlates with improved accountability through police disciplinary actions. Online video correlates with significantly higher civil suit settlements for police misconduct.