"everyone as other: video surveillance and the right to be invisible" cri5 criminology --...

"Everyone as Other: Video surveillance and the right to be

invisible"

CRI5 CRIMINOLOGY -- PROJECTCHRIS MCCORMICK

INTRODUCTION

• This project looks at the topic of CCTV from the perspective of modern surveillance theory

• Included are pictures of surveillance cameras around the city of Fredericton

• These are used for both public and private purposes• --they surveil pubic, private, and ‘semi-public’ areas        • Most cctv employed by private companies for own

security, property-loss prevention• --yet deployment into space where public is invited

(expressly or implied), makes it a public issue• --creates physical, mental & emotional spaces

TOPIC • video surveillance important due to ubiquity of camera

• --consequences of everyday life subject to surveillance

• --feature of daily life in urban Canadian landscape

• perpetually taping public transactions of private individuals

• --buying gas, at the bank, and inside commercial stores

• --surveilled driving through fast-food lines, entering buildings

• --watched inside hospital and walking around university

• --taped from inside bank machines and inside elevators

• Largely innocuous, they are a low-key, but ever-present element of modern urban life

• Can you identify the Freddy-cam in the picture on the next slide? Click through to see a closeup).

camera

TOPIC, CONT.

• Used largely by private companies for security reasons• --comprise network of video surveillance, ’contains’

public• Fredericton public CCTV: Piper's Alley, • --but also citycams, university, high school, hospital …. • However, there is a vast 'network' of private camerage• --eg. gas stations; fast food outlets; banks; grocery

stores

• Available to police/courts during investigation, prosecution

• --create network of visual control accessible by the state• --downloaded onto private sphere, but usable by state• Focus on 'semi-public' areas, largely controlled by

private companies, but where public invited (expressly or implied)

• --also located within public areas (schools), to which the public has less access.

NEXT: “Surveillance is the most meticulous when it is directed against the lower class”

NEXT: “Surveillance is the most meticulous when it is directed against the lower class”

GENERAL ISSUES OF SURVEILLANCE

• Foucault’s metaphor of surveillance • Based on Bentham’s panopticon ‘prison’ conceived in 18thC • Panopticon circular building with prisoners in cells on rim• Dimly lit central tower, few inspectors needed to monitor

multitudes of inmates• The cells illuminated, thus prisoners found it difficult to tell

whether observers were there or watching any particular cell • ‘Gaze’ sovereign: prisoners were seen but could not see• Coercion not needed because inmates individualized    • “Power so perfected rendered its practical use unnecessary”

ISSUES, CONT.

• Social controls dispersed, extended• “deeper penetration of control into the social body”• New ‘scanscapes’ of control, indirect regulation• Based on calculations of risk• 1/ Retreat of state in maintenance of order• --can’t guarantee safety, security• --devolution of crime prevention onto victim• 2/ shift from identification of individuals to aggregates• --deviance not moralistic but probable-istic

FINDINGS

• Visuals collected from around city• --public, private, and semi-public areas• --high-density commercial areas• Most cameras private, some public• However, private/public distinction inadequate• Many (private) areas are where public invited• 1/ “Semi-public areas”: surveilled as if under suspicion• 2/ “Semi-public areas”: physical & mental spaces• --anonymous movement through watched spaces• --watch oneself because of being watched• --management of risk assumes no one can be trusted

ANALYTIC SIGNIFICANCE

• Video surveillance is an important topic because of: • 1/ understanding the organization of public life• --control done through modern institutions • --the panopticon is the viewing of the public• 2/ the development of systems of control• --ruling at a distance, temporally and spatially • --creates the illusion of safety• 3/ theorizing the self in modern society• --surveillance makes us feel distrusted• --creates urban space as muting personal expression

CONCLUSION

• Video surveillance situated in use in modern society

• Illustrations from collection of Fredericton's video cams

• Theorizing surveillance as expression of power

• --unintended consequence modifying of emotional life

• --shaping expression of proper consumer behaviour

• -- no one is beyond suspicion

• Two conceptual discoveries made during auto/ethnography

• --1/ person moves through public, private, & ‘semi-public’ spaces in modern city

• -- 2/ person moves through spaces physically, mentally, emotionally

• Public watches itself being watched, moves confident in realization of surveillance, despite being object of suspicion