With many police officers across the United States now wearing body cameras, a cottage industry of YouTube channels documenting these bodycam interactions has sprung up. There are dozens of such channels on the platform, with videos racking up thousands or even millions of views. But some law enforcement experts consider them exploitative.
How do these YouTube channels operate?
Bodycam channels all get their content “from the same basic model: Someone uses public records requests to obtain video from police arrests, lightly edits the video, adding maybe a brief AI narration or captions, and then hits ‘publish,’” said Vox. Many of the videos involve DUIs or intoxicated people “yelling, speeding, throwing things, hitting cops” and then “being arrested while crying, screaming, spitting and so on.” The channels document “people being arrested for just about anything, from shoplifting to murder and kidnapping cases.”
Many of these channels do big numbers. One of them, Code Blue Cam, averages “over 10 million views a video, and has totaled more than a billion across hundreds of videos,” while another called Midwest Safety “has totaled over 1.5 billion views,” said Vox. The channels claim to publish bodycam footage “based on their significance, the clarity of the footage and whether the interaction offers meaningful insight into how officers respond under pressure,” the owner of Code Blue Cam, who goes by LJ, told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR).
Why are some people concerned?
Many experts say the people uploading these videos “usually aren’t on a crusade for justice. They are interested in having footage of someone’s shoplifting arrest rack up millions of views for profit,” said Vox. The most viral videos “can be devastating for their subjects, damaging relationships with family and friends, frustrating job searches and scarring psyches,” said Intelligencer. And since bodycam footage is often public record, the people in the videos generally “have little legal recourse: claims of defamation and false light are extremely difficult to prove.”
For victims, the “experience of having their worst moments broadcast to millions of strangers on the internet” can be “devastating,” said WPR, especially since they are often uncensored and include defendants’ real names. Women and people of color are most heavily featured, according to researchers. At least one bodycam channel came under scrutiny because it “only requested DWI stops involving young women, some being underage,” said WPVI-TV Philadelphia. Women are disproportionately seen, even though “some 80% of DUIs are committed by men,” said Intelligencer.
These channels also have a financial component. Code Blue Cam earns about $325,000 monthly, according to YouTube analytics tracker VidIQ. Many of the channels additionally “feature a list of affiliate links to earn commission from viewers purchasing products like security and dash cameras,” said WPR.
Some police departments are starting to fight back. Officials in Spokane County, Washington, recently passed a resolution “fee of 78 cents per minute of time it takes staff to obscure portions” of bodycam footage “that state law says should not be public,” said The Spokesman-Review. The fee is “intended to deter social media creators who make voluminous requests for footage.” The Illinois House of Representatives is also considering a bill that would “allow police to deny video requests from internet sites and social media channels,” said the Daily Herald.