Crossing Lenses: Policing's New Visibility and the Role of ‘Smartphone Journalism’ as a Form of Freedom-Preserving Reciprocal Surveillance

Citizens recording police (a form of “sousveillance”) has become increasingly common in recent years. Citizen media can have a substantial impact on policing and police image management – and thus effect public perceptions of police legitimacy. On the other hand, police departments are increasingly utilizing sophisticated visual surveillance technologies, such as officer-mounted wearable cameras, to document police-citizen encounters. This paper examines, theoretically, the role that citizen media should play as a liberty-preserving form of reciprocal transparency, what forms of respect ought to be owed by camera-wielding citizens to the police officers and other subjects of their recordings in public spaces.