Austin Kim

Professor Wallace
Principles of Psychology 1300-4
12 December 2014
The Effect of Cameras on Behavior
With the recent controversy circling around the Ferguson case,
the exact series of events and truth of what actually happened will
never be fully known. Eyewitnesses cannot provide consistent and
ample evidence according to the textbook. Testimonies can be invalid
because of source confusion and the misinformation effect, resulting in
wrongful convictions. An example of the misinformation effect is when
white vans were pulled over and searched for because of multiple
eyewitnesses when the criminals were in a different vehicle. Arvin
McGee was wrongfully convicted until DNA testing proved him innocent
13 years later (254). Impartial evidence can be recorded if body
cameras were placed on police officers and will help both parties in
determining the actual truth. However, how will behaviors change
when people know they are being recorded on camera?
Kassin, S. M., Kukucka, J., Lawson, V. Z., & DeCarlo, J. (2014). Does
video recording
alter the behavior of police during interrogation? A mock crimeand-investigation study. Law And Human Behavior, 38(1), 73-83.
doi:10.1037/lhb0000047

By being recorded, these cameras altered the way police

interrogation was handled. A staged crime scene was held with half of
the mock suspects committing the crime with half being innocent.
However, all the suspects did not know the interrogation was being
recorded and only half of the police interrogators knew they were being
recorded. Interrogators who knew they were being recorded used less
psychological interrogation techniques like playing the good cop, bad
cop compared to the other cops who did not know. Suspects also
perceived them as less pushy to elicit a confession out of them.
van Rompay, T. L., Vonk, D. J., & Fransen, M. L. (2009). The eye of the
camera: Effects
of security cameras on prosocial behavior. Environment And
Behavior, 41(1), 60-74. doi:10.1177/0013916507309996
Based on previous studies, seeking for approval can trigger
helping behavior and override the bystander effect. The presence of
security cameras and the individual need for public approval both
factored into prosocial behavior. People with higher need for approval
offered more help and pronounced higher social behavior compared to
those with lower need for approval. Overall, by just having a security
camera, participants offered more help.
Dierickx, J. J. (2008). Why camera cars do not fix the problem: A study
of technology

use and racial profiling. Dissertation Abstracts International

Section A, 69, 1167.
Thanks to a rise in technology and media, videos of high speed
car chases, police misconduct, and criminal behaviors can be seen on
television or through other streaming sites like YouTube or Vimeo
because of the in-car cameras. This study looked at two police
departments that border a predominantly African-American community.
Even with the knowledge of being on camera, this study shows that
police disregard technology and do not comply to the policy most of
the time. Events are recorded partially if recorded at all. Rather than
providing a truth, police can give the public a false reality by giving
them actual events shown on film. In this case, cameras do not affect
police behavior.
Ariel, B., Farrar, W. A., & Sutherland, A. (2014). The effect of police
body-worn
cameras on use of force and citizens complaints against the
police: A randomized controlled trial. Journal Of Quantitative
Criminology, doi:10.1007/s10940-014-9236-3
However, a recent study involving further research with police
wearing body cameras and their use of force show different results. Not
only were the behaviors of the police were taken into account, but the
amount of citizens complaints against the police. The use of force was
defined as a non-desirable response in police-public encounters. Over

12 months, results show that police without body cameras were

roughly twice as more likely to use force than those with body cameras
equipped. As less force was used, the amount of complaints by citizens
was reduced tenfold.
Overall, the sole presence of cameras affects individual
behaviors in a mainly positive way. With higher awareness and
implementation of cameras, there seems to be a more moderate
behavior among police rather than the power hungry cops like the
Stanford prison experiment. Further research could be done on the
suspects and whether or not their knowledge of being on camera
affects their behavior in a positive or negative way.