Democratizing Proof: Pooling Public and Police Body-Camera Videos

NORTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW Volume 96 Number 5 Badge Cams as Data and Deterrent: Enforcement, the Public, and the Press in the Age of Digital Video Article 10 6-1-2018 Democratizing Proof: Pooling Public and Police Body-Camera Videos Mary D. Fan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Mary D. Fan, Democratizing Proof: Pooling Public and Police Body-Camera Videos, 96 N.C. L. Rev. 1639 (2018). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol96/iss5/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Law Review by an authorized editor of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact . 96 N.C. L. REV. 1639 (2018) DEMOCRATIZING PROOF: POOLING PUBLIC AND POLICE BODY-CAMERA VIDEOS* MARY D. FAN** There are two cultural revolutions in recording the police. From the vantage of police departments, there is the rapidly spreading uptake of police-worn body cameras. On the public side, community members are increasingly using their cell phone cameras to record the police. Together, these dual recording revolutions are generating important new questions and possibilities regarding the balance of power in producing proof and illuminating contested encounters. This Essay is about how pooling police body camera and public videos can address three emerging challenges in the police recording revolution. The first challenge is the controversy over failures to record contested encounters by officers wearing body cameras. The second is the perceptual biases and limitations of body-camera video. The third is nondisclosure and policy limits on use of body-camera video to detect violations. This Essay argues that pooling public and police videos serves an important function in addition to offering evidence to solve crime. Including public videos in the official record democratizes proof so that members of the public can help shape and contest the official story. Perspective matters. A story can shift powerfully depending on the vantage point from which it is perceived and filmed—and depending on whether it is recorded at all. In addition to enhancing investigations, pooling public videos with police reports and recordings can better inform prosecutorial, defense, and judicial decision-making as well as police regulation. * © 2018 Mary D. Fan. ** Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law. Thanks to David Ardia, Lauren Kosches, Richard Myers, Mary-Rose Papandrea, Elizabeth Robinson, and Cordon Smart for the invitation to join the symposium and their excellent insights and to the outstanding team at the North Carolina Law Review, especially the lead editor on this article, Lauren Kosches. 96 N.C. L. REV. 1639 (2018) 1640 NORTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 96 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1640 I. DUAL CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS IN RECORDING THE POLICE ......................................................................................... 1646 A. From Arrest to Protest: When the Public Records the Police .................................................................................... 1647 B. Radical Transparency: The Rapid Spread of PoliceWorn Body Cameras ........................................................... 1652 II. THREE GROWING CHALLENGES WITH POLICE-WORN BODY CAMERAS ........................................................................ 1658 A. Controversies Over Failures to Record by Officers Wearing Body Cameras ...................................................... 1659 B. Perceptual and Interpretative Limitations and Biases ...... 1662 C. Nondisclosure Controversies and Limits on the Use of Body-Worn Camera Video for Detecting Violations ....... 1664 III. POOLING POLICE AND PUBLIC VIDEOS TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES .............................................................................. 1667 A. Advancing Beyond the Wild West of YouTube, Social Media, and Viral Police Videos .......................................... 1668 1. Quality Control by Pooling Police and Public Videos ............................................................................. 1668 2. An Independent Repository of Public Videos for Analysis........................................................................... 1670 B. The Advantages of Pooling Public Videos ........................ 1671 1. Crowdsourcing Evidence ............................................... 1671 2. Remediating Perceptual Biases and Limitations ........ 1672 3. Crowdsourcing Accountability ..................................... 1673 C. Likely Concerns, Barriers, and Objections ....................... 1675 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 1680 INTRODUCTION In the softening light of dusk in Anacostia, in Washington, D.C.’s southeast quadrant, a call from dispatch crackles over the police patrol car’s radio.1 Multiple persons have reported that there is a youth brandishing a gun. Lights activated, the patrol unit I am riding in joins others responding to the call, converging at the intersection where people reported last seeing the armed youth. No person 1. These and other narratives derive from my fieldwork during police ridealongs in Anacostia, in southeastern Washington, D.C., and in the Western and Central districts of Baltimore. In addition, this Essay will include narratives and interviews with members of Copwatch NYC. Notes from Ridealong with the Metropolitan Police of Washington, D.C., 7th District (May 23, 2017) (on file with the North Carolina Law Review). 96 N.C. L. REV. 1639 (2018) 2018] DEMOCRATIZING PROOF 1641 bearing a gun is in sight. The patrol cars fan out to search adjacent streets. The radio crackles again, summoning the officers to a nearby housing project. A suspect fitting the description is stopped with several of his friends in a public area on the ground floor of the complex. All the stopped persons are young black males, ranging from teenagers to young adults. At least three of the youths have their cell phone cameras out and are recording the officers at the scene and the several other officers arriving to provide backup. With their cell phone cameras aimed, the youths protest in variations of the following, as voiced by one of the teens: “What the fuck you stopping us for? We didn’t do anything.” The cameras on all sides are recording as officers frisk the detained youths. Each officer wears a body camera, catching the scene from his or her position. Bent with legs spread for a frisk and a hand braced against the wall, the youths continue to hold out their cell phones, recording from their positions. The search does not turn up any weapons. Officers search the grass and shrubs near the building in case guns were dro (...truncated)