IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 9

COMMENTARY

KEVIN D.
HAGGERTY

AJAY SANDHU

The Police Crisis
of Visibility

A

rugged male Metro Toronto police officer
This incident, particularly the fact that the video
stares down a female protester outside the
made "Officer Bubbles" (Constable Josephs) infamous
Toronto G-20 meetings in 2010. She is
internationally while raising questions about heavyfilmed blowing bubbles directly at the
handed policing, also signals the police's increasingly
officer who staffs the barricades only inches away.
fraught relationship with visibility [8].
The officer sternly warns her that if she continues he
will arrest her, as the bubbles amount to assault. The
Shifting Visible Field
young woman is incredulous at this news. Moments
Policing occurs in a "visible field" [3] where offilater she is seen being loaded into a police van,
cers are scrutinized to varying degrees by different
although the reasons for her arrest are uncertain.1
audiences. While their brightly colored uniforms are
Anyone who has spent time at the front lines of a
designed to make them stand out, police officers have
demonstration knows that comparable
nonetheless always had a low profile.
dynamics of police intimidation are comPolice have an Encounters between citizens and police
mon. In fact, the only truly notable aspect
have traditionally only been witnessed
increasingly
of this encounter was that it was captured
by a handful of bystanders who are in
fraught
on video and disseminated on YouTube to
co-presence with the police. This situarelationship
a global audience, quickly garnering over
tion contributes to the familiar dynamics
900  000 hits. For the mainstream media,
whereby accusations of police deviance
with visibility.
which rebroadcast the footage, the incident
devolved into "he said/she said" disputes,
serves as an example of what Doyle [4]
a situation where the police have long
refers to as "found news": an event whose newsworthihad the upper hand given the high degree of trust that
ness is exclusively due to it being captured on video.
mainstream populations tend to have in the police.
Police officers have therefore relied on their low
1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyAn78FPLFk.
profiles as an important power resource. Today,
however, the police's visible field is shifting, at least
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2014.2319912
in part due to how policing increasingly occurs "on
Date of publication: 4 June 2014
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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SuMMEr 2014

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9



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyAn78FPLFk

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