Cops, lies, and videotape: Police reform and the media in Hawaii

Abstract

Police accountability is among the most prominent criminal justice issues in America today. Accounts of police misconduct captured by new communication and information technologies have played a central role in elevating this issue. On the continental US, the Black Lives Matter movement has driven these events, lodging the political debate in the larger context of racial inequality. In Hawaii, a parallel but distinctive series of events has occurred. A push for greater police accountability has emerged, but it has been more closely associated with gender relations than race relations and has involved women in political office rather than street protests. The Hawaii case also provides some generalizable lessons, particularly regarding the context-specific roles that gender and race relations play, and the potential for video evidence in promoting police reform.

Perception or Reality: An Examination of Police Misconduct, Organizational Justice, and Promotion Opportunities in the NYPD

“…Furthermore, the literature has revealed numerous correlates of police misconduct. These include: race (D’Souza et al, 2019; Headley et al, 2021; Headley & Blount-Hill, 2021; Morrow & Shjarback, 2019; White & Kane, 2013; Wood et al, 2019; Wright, 2020), gender (Gaub, 2020; Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2016; Wood et al, 2019), age and tenure (Terrill & Ingram, 2016; Wood et al, 2019), occupational stress (Bishopp et al, 2020), media coverage (Chagnon et al, 2018; Graziano et al, 2010; Weitzer, 2015), past misconduct (Donner, 2019; Harris, 2016; Harris & Worden, 2014; Rozema & Schanzenbach, 2019; White & Kane, 2013; Wood et al, 2019), and officer attitudes (Fridell et al, 2020; Huff et al, 2020; Lawshe et al, 2019; Reynolds & Hicks, 2015). Appropriately, in light of recent events that have renewed the Black Lives Matter movement that began 8 years ago, racial disparities and police misconduct have been most studied in the past 5–7 years.…”

To Swerve and Neglect: De-Policing Throughout Today’s Front-Line Police Work

“…Until recently, and along these lines, police were most often the primary controllers, and definers, of information related to their activities (Chagnon, Chesney-Lind & Johnson 2018;Chan 1999;Chermak, McGarrell & Gruenewald 2006;Doyle 2003;Ericson 1982Ericson , 1995Ericson, Baranek & Chan 1989Greer & McLaughlin 2010b;Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke & Roberts 1978;Hirschfield & Simon 2010;Lawrence 2000;McLaughlin 2007;Schneider 2015;Thompson & Lee 2004;Tuchman 1978). In this regard, in the late 1990s Doyle (2003: 133-135) found that even with increasing availability of civilian footage of policing occurrences, television's broadcasting of video recordings of police activities in the field "often strengthened the position of those who already [held] the upper hand…TV does change things, but in ways tailored by police and similar dominant players.…”