The Panopticon Effect: the surveillance of police officers
| Date | 14 March 2016 |
| Pages | 28-39 |
| Published date | 14 March 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-08-2015-0041 |
| Author | Margaret Vickers,Philip Birch,Sally Gallovic,Michael Kennedy |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology |
The Panopticon Effect: the surveillance
of police officers
Margaret Vickers, Philip Birch, Sally Gallovic and Michael Kennedy
Margaret Vickers is based at
Department of Business,
University of Western Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia.
Philip Birch is Lecturer in
Policing, Criminal and
Community Justice,
Department of Social Sciences
and Psychology, University of
Western Sydney, New South
Wales, Australia.
Sally Gallovic is based at
Department of Business,
University of Western Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia.
Michael Kennedy is based at
University of Western Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract
Purpose –Police officers from a police force in Australia were interviewed about the types and level of
surveillance they experience in their work, with the recognition of technology contributing to an increased level
of such. The concept of the Panopticon and the Looking-Glass Self offer useful frameworks for
understanding the experiences of those police officers interviewed. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on 14 in-depth unstructured interviews with police officers, this
study is an exploratory piece of research.
Findings –This study presents findings in which police officers spoke of the surveillance they encounter from
the perspective of the police organisation; their own self-surveillance as well as being monitored by other
police officers. This paper argues that the Panopticon Effect can negatively impact on individual officers as
well as overall police practice.
Originality/value –This paper is an exploratory study based on the experiences of rank and file police
officers currently in service. The paper considers the surveillance and scrutiny of police officers from within the
organisation and recognises the impact of technology.
Keywords Technology, Policing, Surveillance, Scrutiny, Look-Glass Self, Panopticon
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Past research has reported the dilemmas, conundrums and vexations that police officer are
routinely exposed to in their working lives. Carabetta (2003) spoke of the serious and inequitable
implications surrounding police officers employment status compared to other employees, with
common law having long established that police officers are not actually employees. Others have
raised the challenges surrounding police practice in terms of the level of accountability and
transparency within such practice as well as the typesand level of complaints being made against
police (Dixon and Smith, 1998; Smith, 2001; Smith, 2010). This includes associated and/or ensuing
litigation, and problems of civil liability that may subsequently face police (Smith, 2003; Harlow,
2004; Hughes, 2001; McCulloch and Palmer, 2005; Hopkins, 2011). There has been a plethora of
writings on police accountability, scrutiny and surveillance (Walker, 2006; Rushin, 2011; Trottier,
2012; Walker and Archbold, 2013), however, the main omission from this body of literature is the
examination of police accountability, scrutiny and surveillance and the effect of such through
the lived experiences of rank and file police officers. This paper offers an examination of the
surveillance of rank and file police officers, using the concepts of the “Panopticon”(Foucault, 1979)
and the “Looking-Glass Self”(Cooley, 1902) as theoretical frameworks, in order to make sense of
their lived experiences.
The “Panopticon”is a term used by Foucault (1979) to examine social control. The term reflects
how people are kept under surveillance in order to ensure they follow rules/regulations or face the
Received 31 August 2015
Revised 25 September 2015
Accepted 29 October 2015
PAGE28
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRACTICE
j
VOL. 2 NO. 1 2016, pp.28-39, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841 DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-08-2015-0041
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