“It's on Us to Watch Out for Ourselves”: Community Organizations and the Rise of Private Camera Networks

• In Event: Community and School Safety: Meanings and Methods for Enhancing Feelings of Safety

Abstract

The growth of Ring’s “video doorbells” and other private security cameras has become the subject of contentious debate in policy, legal, media, and academic circles. Although there is a rich body of theoretical scholarship on the privatization of surveillance, our understanding of private video networks remains quite limited, largely focusing on either utopian or dystopian narratives. Drawing on interviews with leaders of community organizations that have implemented neighborhood cameras, the purpose of this study is to provide insight into some of the logics and processes that drive the adoption of private surveillance systems in urban areas. The results show that a myriad of different factors—including perceptions of inadequate policing, an internalized sense of responsibility for safety, and institutional pressures to conform—compel community organizations to purchase and install cameras in their neighborhoods. Overall, the findings highlight the role of cultural forces, suggesting community organizations are prone to adopt cameras in response to wider beliefs about what they should be doing to ensure public safety.

Author

• Claire Greene, University of Missouri - St. Louis