A vision of control: the increased sophistication of CCTV brings new controversy

CCTV has evolved into a very different creature to what it was when the first cameras were installed. The technology has become more sophisticated and there has been a rise in peripheral products which radically change its nature and capability. With regulation severely lacking, it is time for serious public debate about where CCTV is headed and the boundaries of acceptability, argues Emmeline Taylor

Abuse against shop workers has increased during the pandemic – it is time to take action to protect them

Emmeline Taylor reports how attacks against shop workers have increased during the COVID-19 crisis, exacerbating an already problematic situation. Such incidents are often dismissed as ‘business crimes’ and therefore somehow victimless, rendering a change in the law necessary

Lights, Camera, Redaction. Police Body-Worn Cameras: Autonomy, Discretion and Accountability

The sun beats down on a hot and sticky afternoon in Oklahoma City, September 2015. A police officer fitted with a body-worn camera is giving chase to a man who has allegedly robbed a general store armed with a knife. The assailant runs into dense grassland and falls to the ground. The pursuing officer incapacitates him with a Taser, following which another officer kneels on him and secures his hands behind his back with handcuffs. Several further officers arrive at the scene. As the man lies face down on the ground, “Turn it off,” comes the whispered order from the handcuffing officer. The assailant succumbs to a black leather boot to the neck as the officer wearing the camera turns his back on what’s happening, thus preventing the scene from being fully captured. Audible cries are heard from the restrained assailant but the majority of the remaining footage is not of the altercation, but rather, the surrounding trees and grassland.

A Test of Predator Avoidance by Larvae of the Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea wilderae) in Appalachian Streams

Larval Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamanders (Eurycea wilderae) are significant components of Appalachian streams, reaching densities up to 100/m2. Not surprisingly, these salamanders fall prey to many types of predator. In order to test the hypothesis that larval E. wilderae actively avoid predators, we paired them against a variety of predators of this species. Predators included Banded Sculpins (Cottus carolinae), Chattahoochee Crayfish (Cambarus howardi), and Spring Salamanders (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus), both adult and larval. We placed larvae in a 1-m metal trough filled with water with a predator placed in a cage at one end. A control treatment consisted of an empty cage. For each trial, we placed a larval E. wilderae. After the larva stopped in one place for 10 min, we measured the distance between the larva and the cage. We ran 18‒20 replicates for each of the five treatments. A Kruskal-Wallis test showed no significant difference between any of the treatments in mean distance. Disagreement between our results and those of other workers suggests the possibility of interspecific or interpopulation variation in anti-predator behavior. In addition, because of their high densities and wide variety of predators, larval E. wilderae may not suffer sufficient predatory pressure from a particular species of predator to evolve appropriate behavioral responses

Police, public, and offender perceptions of body-worn video: a single jurisdictional multiple-perspective analysis

Objectives. Police, public, and offender survey responses from a single jurisdiction give a multiple-perspective insight into the use of body-worn video (BWV) cameras by police. Methods. Police attitudinal data was collected from before (n = 190), during (n = 139), and at the conclusion (n = 221) of a BWV implementation trial. Public attitudes were collected at the conclusion of the BWV implementation trial via online survey (n = 995 respondents) and intercept survey (n = 428 respondents). Offender attitudes (n = 302) were collected in police custody over a 6-month period immediately preceding the BWV trial. Results. The extent to which police felt BWV influenced their behavior tempered during the trial. All three perspectives were supportive of the use of BWV. The public who had encountered BWV-wearing officers and the offender sample indicated limited belief that BWV would reduce bad behavior. There was also clear contention about the policy and practice decisions around recording. Conclusions. These findings have significance for BWV trials, commenting on the importance of (a) collecting police attitudes at multiple points, (b) separating the attitudes of public who did encounter police wearing BWV, and (c) data collection and policy for evaluation outcomes

'This is not America': Cultural mythscapes, media representation and the anatomy of the Surveillance School in Australia

Schools have exhibited a demonstrable predilection for surveillance technologies in recent years. While much attention has been paid to the globalized diffusion of surveillance and security practices, in contrast, the ways in which artefacts of surveillance surface and take root unevenly internationally has not received much scholarly attention. Drawing on the media representation of emergent school surveillance technologies in Australia, this article seeks to illuminate how distinctive cultural dynamics interact with acceptability, reverence and rejection of surveillance apparatus in the educational context. Far from revealing homogeneity in the manifestation of surveillance practices, the findings show that cultural context and specificity are central to understanding the materiality of surveillance apparatus and regimes

Being held to account: Detainees’ perceptions of police body-worn cameras

Police organisations across the world are embracing body-worn video camera technology. The justification for this is to enhance public trust in police, provide transparency in policing activity, increase police accountability, reduce conflict between police and public, and to provide a police perspective of incidents and events. However, while the corpus of research into the efficacy and operational practicalities of police use of body-worn video cameras is developing, questions on some elements of their impact remain. The majority of scholarship has hitherto been evaluations focused on the impact of the cameras on police use of force and on the numbers of complaints against the police. Alternatively, this article explores body-worn video cameras from the perspective of police detainees, and specifically, detainees’ perceptions of the capacities of body-worn video cameras to deliver promised increased levels of accountability in policing. The article draws on a survey and research interviews with 907 police detainees across four Australian jurisdictions. While respondents largely support the use of body-worn video cameras they also identify a number of caveats. We conclude by suggesting that there are still impediments in body-worn video cameras to achieving the level of accountability promised by advocates and expected by the respondents