Mar 3, 2023
On this episode of Welcomed by Design, we sit down with Dr. Kelsey Cameron to discuss police body cams, the subjective nature of interpreting body cam footage, and why body cams fail as “perfect witnesses.” And we also talk about the design that goes into body cam operation: policy design affecting their use, how the footage gets handled once recorded, and the physical design of the cameras. This is a conversation that highlights critical nuances often left out of mainstream conversations around body cams, as well as why empathy might not always be what designers need to be seeking to design better.
Content warning: In this interview, we discuss police body cams and their impact on policing and the criminal justice system. Given the nature of this topic we discuss systemic racism, police violence, body cams, and their footage. For an extended content warning, including a temporal locator of this interview, please refer to 0:00:00 - 0:01:21 of both the episode and episode transcript.
(An unembedded link to the resource library, which includes transcripts, will be at the bottom of this description for anyone needing to copy and paste the link in a web browser.)
Go to our resource library (for terms and recommended readings)
Host and producer: Lynn Priestley
Executive producer: Dr. Jessica FitzPatrick
Sound design: Ashton McCool
Producer: Emily Kuntz
Transcriber: Shivangi “Teddy” Tiwari
Sound credits:
“Turning to You” from Landmans Duet, by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
“Valantis” from Cauldron, by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
“Algae Trio” from Algae Fields, by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
The rest of the audio comes from Freesound.org.
Julesv4 - Door Creaking
DCPoke - Birds Singing 03
Jazbavac - Vibration
Patchytherat - Whiney Meow 2
Sonically_Sound - Crowd at Cafeteria
Zrrion-the-Insect - Keyboard Typing Sounds
60013_qubodup - Whoosh
If you have questions, guest suggestions, or comments about the accessibility of this podcast, please don’t hesitate to email us at welcomedbydesign@gmail.com.
Unembedded link to above-mentioned resource library: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1unKUUqD_SH2Qi0C94s2j7WEuXdtP0k0e?usp=sharing