The Blue Line on Thin Ice: Police Use of Force Modifications in the Era of Cameraphones and YouTube

Today, the ubiquity of cameraphones and online social media's contributions to sociopolitical discourses on policing have exponentially increased the public's exposure to police mis/conduct. This article reports on research that inquired into the influence of 'policing's new visibility' on front-line officers. Participants in the project included 231 operational police officers and institutional policing officials in Toronto and Ottawa (Canada). The study found that videorecording capabilities across the citizenry and concurrent opportunities for the public to disseminate footage of police occurrences (and conduct) through online file-sharing are profoundly integrated into the consciousness of most rank-and-file officers and have influenced significant behavioural changes through the deterrence of certain practices, including moderations in police violence across a majority of study participants.