Christopher J. Schneider

Erick Laming

Focusing on discourses surrounding the introduction and use of body-worn cameras, this book contends that the principal catalyst for equipping frontline officers with cameras is linked to media narratives concerning beliefs about their effectiveness in bringing about police reform. Although research testing the efficacy of body cameras is inconsistent, law enforcement agencies continue to adopt and use body-worn cameras on the premise that the technology will increase and enhance accountability and transparency. The authors argue that the police and public do not have shared definitions or expectations associated with the terms accountability and transparency, but that these ideas appear frequently across media narratives in relation to police reform. Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform details how the new discourse obfuscates the clashing expectations and goals of police and publics, ensuring that transparency and accountability remain aspirational public concepts with no enshrined legal or policy parameters that bolster the legitimacy of policing as an institution. This book will appeal to scholars and students of criminology, sociology, media studies, and policing.

Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform

Police Body-Worn Cameras

Michael Burawoy

Ariane Hanemaayer

In 2004, Michael Burawoy challenged sociologists to move beyond the ivory tower and into the realm of activism, to engage in public discourses about what society could or should be. His call to arms sparked debate among sociologists. Which side would sociologists take? Would "public sociology" speak for all sociologists? In this volume, leading Canadian experts continue the debate by discussing their discipline's mission and practice and the role that ethics plays in research, theory, and teaching. In doing so, they offer insights as to where their discipline is heading and why it matters to people inside and outside the university.

Christopher J. Schneider

Books

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