Policing the Police: Surveillance and the Predilection for Leniency

Abstract

By raising the visibility of frontline police work, emerging technologies such as mobile audiovisual systems offer the potential to alter officers' discretionary behavior. In this study, 265 Canadian officers were asked to speculate on how they would handle a hypothetical traffic offense. Half were asked to imagine their actions were being videotaped, whereas the other half were not presented with this request. Descriptive and multivariate analyses showed that responses were shaped by a complex interplay of factors. The study concluded that surveillance can encourage, as well as inhibit, the police predilection for lenience.