Operational proportionality: Exploring understandings of proportionality in the police accountability framework of (smart) video-surveillance in public spaces in Belgium

• In Event: Digital Criminology: Surveillance, Power and Accountability

Abstract

Police accountability frameworks are set up to restrict the exercise of police power. Here, the principle of proportionality functions to ensure that exercise is balanced, or proportionate. Accordingly, the benefits of the use of (smart) video-surveillance in public space should outweigh the potential harms and risks. The stark contrast between the uncertainty of effects and the continued proliferation of police use of video-surveillance in public space suggests that the framework for police accountability mobilizes a particular substantiation/understanding/operationalisation of proportionality (in terms of benefits, harms/risks, safeguards, and weighing method). The aim of this paper is to uncover this particular understanding, as well as the biases and assumptions that underpin this understanding. Drawing on mixed methods, our analysis reveals the functioning of ‘proportionality’ on an operational level, with important implications for fundamental rights. By investigating the role of proportionality within the framework for police accountability, our results reveal the limitations of the framework to prevent (accountability for) surveillance harms and risks. Rather than restricting the exercise of police power, we argue that the exercise of police power is amplified. This has important implications for the functioning of the accountability framework in relation to fundamental rights and democratic values.

Authors

• Bram Visser, Vub

• Rosamunde Van Brakel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel