Integrating video technology and administrative practice in policing

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that philosophic and administrative thought have enframed (Heidegger, 1977) us to unconsciously accept technology in public administration and the bureaucracy. Design/methodology/approach It builds on literature in phenomenology. Findings It discusses the implications of this phenomenon for organizational decision-making, management, and governance more broadly. Practical implications It questions whether we should utilize video technology in policing, and examine technology as good or bad before implementing it. Originality/value Most of the critiques of technology were in the early 1990s. This paper attempts to explain why we implicitly accept technology, links the philosophy of Immanuel Kant to Herbert Simon, and articulates how technology shapes our thinking.

Exiled to Main Street: How government's use of social media diminishes public space

“…Government in the technological age applies and extends utilitarian ideals at the expense of the quality of administrative practice. And thinkers like Herbert Simon have conditioned us to accept technology on the basis of efficiency without thinking critically about some of the consequences (Piccorelli & Elias, ). The proliferation of social media in our public sphere means we think differently about how to listen to citizens; public agencies replace felt sense and judgment with social media‐based measures that narrow our conception of the public.…”

“…In a desperate attempt to gain public approval, governments adopt new technology, but they rarely assess what any technology means for governance beyond making it more efficient. Instead of being lured by efficiency and the potential to realize utilitarian ideals (Piccorelli & Elias, ), we need to examine their full impact much more closely. In Arendt's terms, we need to think and judge.…”

“…As we will discuss in what follows, Heidegger's critique implies that whereas social media have revealed new ways of being efficient (Piccorelli & Elias, ), seeing reality, finding information, and conversing with faraway friends or loved ones, these uses only conceal the essence of technology, which is to enframe us within a particular, largely unnoticed, way of relating to other people and making sense of society. In this technology as in other modern technologies, society, we and other people have been enframed as standing reserve.…”

The Judging Spectator and Forensic Video Analysis: Technological Implications for How We Think and Administer Justice

“…Heidegger (1977) went further to warn that technology does not just change our experience, but actually orders us. This is because we take for granted the enframing power of technology to change how and what we experience, and how we understand the world (Heidegger, 1977, p. 304-6;Piccorelli & Elias, 2018;Piccorelli & Stivers, 2019).…”

“…With increased surveillance (i.e., cameras fixed to objects and people) the notion of a witness is now being pushed beyond traditional boundaries of those who were physically present. The courts and public increasingly rely on video footage as a form of evidence to be considered alongside eyewitness accounts and, in many cases, ahead of or in place of these accounts (Piccorelli & Elias, 2018). In the police shooting of Tamir Rice, for example, police experts said the expert video analysis provided "reasonable justification" (McGinty, 2015) for the shooting because it "found that Rice's arm moved forward and toward his waist as the police car neared" (Palmer, 2015).…”