Reform is a political tool, long used to ensure the continuation of specific police practices and the police institution itself. Promising increased transparency and accountability and hence legitimacy, Body Worn Cameras (BWC) purport to show the facts of police work and critical incidents precisely as they happened. Invoking and relying upon the objective truth of the image, policy makers, academics and some police themselves see BWCs both as a panacea to arrest police misconduct and a way to guard against spurious allegations. However, placing them in the long history of police reform, BWCs are also usefully understood as a form of pacification, one which seeks to reaffirm police legitimacy specifically by mastering the visual field itself. Relying upon a collection of official documents outlining the efficacy and implementation of BWCs, it is argued here that police advocates seek to shield the institution from scrutiny by invoking photographic truth, while less sympathetic reformers likewise overestimate the ability of the visual to reign in the violence inherent to the police project.
","abstract_html":"<p>Reform is a political tool, long used to ensure the continuation of specific police practices and the police institution itself. Promising increased transparency and accountability and hence legitimacy, Body Worn Cameras (BWC) purport to show the facts of police work and critical incidents precisely as they happened. Invoking and relying upon the objective truth of the image, policy makers, academics and some police themselves see BWCs both as a panacea to arrest police misconduct and a way to guard against spurious allegations. However, placing them in the long history of police reform, BWCs are also usefully understood as a form of pacification, one which seeks to reaffirm police legitimacy specifically by mastering the visual field itself. Relying upon a collection of official documents outlining the efficacy and implementation of BWCs, it is argued here that police advocates seek to shield the institution from scrutiny by invoking photographic truth, while less sympathetic reformers likewise overestimate the ability of the visual to reign in the violence inherent to the police project. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Benitez, Ivan"],"institution":"Eastern Kentucky University","degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Master's","degree_discipline":"Justice Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:15:53Z","subjects":["Accountability","Body worn cameras","Legitimacy","Pacification","Transparency","Visuality","Criminology and Criminal Justice"],"languages":[],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Ivan Benitez"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/613","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Benitez, Ivan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Encompass Digital Archive, Eastern Kentucky University"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Justice Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master's"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Eastern Kentucky University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Accountability","Body worn cameras","Legitimacy","Pacification","Transparency","Visuality","Criminology and Criminal Justice"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Ivan Benitez"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/613"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Reform is a political tool, long used to ensure the continuation of specific police practices and the police institution itself. Promising increased transparency and accountability and hence legitimacy, Body Worn Cameras (BWC) purport to show the facts of police work and critical incidents precisely as they happened. Invoking and relying upon the objective truth of the image, policy makers, academics and some police themselves see BWCs both as a panacea to arrest police misconduct and a way to guard against spurious allegations. However, placing them in the long history of police reform, BWCs are also usefully understood as a form of pacification, one which seeks to reaffirm police legitimacy specifically by mastering the visual field itself. Relying upon a collection of official documents outlining the efficacy and implementation of BWCs, it is argued here that police advocates seek to shield the institution from scrutiny by invoking photographic truth, while less sympathetic reformers likewise overestimate the ability of the visual to reign in the violence inherent to the police project.
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