ABSTRACT
This chapter represents an attempt to complicate the current debate over police body-worn cameras. Over the course of the last 30 years, cities throughout Asia, Europe, and North America have become saturated with state-sponsored video surveillance. For many civil libertarians and privacy advocates, the growing popularity of police body-worn cameras raises serious concerns. Given that many street-level interactions between the police and public have historically been hidden from view and free from effective oversight, it is easy to see why body-worn cameras might be welcomed by civil libertarians and academics concerned about making the police more accountable. CCTV surveillance has steadily expanded its reach because the public has “assumed an attitude of thoughtlessness” towards it, so much so that there is now a tendency to take the benefits and risks associated with public area surveillance for granted.
