Regulating Police Body-Worn Camera Practice - A Four Modality Perspective

Police authorities in a number of countries have recently introduced body-worn cameras (BWC). With the use of body-worn cameras, the police have gained access to new forms of wearable and powerful law enforcing technologies. The cameras enable collection of large volume of personal information and in some cases even sensitive information that must be managed and stored within the organisationin line with rules of law. As is often the case when technology develops faster than societal norms and values, a range of questions concerning issues related to regulation of these practises are still uninvestigated. Therefore, this paper will analyse what actually regulates individual police officers’ body- worn camera practice. Empirically, we use the Swedish police as a case and our study is based on qualitative interviews. Theoretically we draw upon Lawrence Lessig’s four modality model - law, norms, market, and architecture - and we conclude that i) law is considered important although law regarding BWC is still in its infancy, ii) while law and official directives have a more macro applicability, norms are developed and maintained more locally, iii) market regulate indirectly via availability and cost, and iv) architecture is not necessarily as self-executed as often stated