Imagine all the lurid details of your worst moment posted online forever.
A relatively new internet phenomenon presents police body cam video footage of real people acting badly during real arrests. They are among the most watched videos on YouTube. One channel has passed a billion views across its catalog, and another has topped 1.5 billion, according to Vox. They earn big money. Code Blue Cam is estimated to earn about $325,000 a month, according to analytics tracker VidIQ.
The videos are possible because of the now ubiquitous police body cams, largely adopted after a controversial 2014 police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, in hopes of creating an impartial record of what happens when an officer and a citizen meet.
Video producers scour public records to find likely situations. Then police departments review and redact every clip, an expensive, lengthy process, according to The Wausonian.
What you see is a grab bag of situations: Relentlessly polite officers and impatient officers. Calm drunks and wildly out of control drunks. Criminals determined to kill. People performing for the body cam to press their political point of view. People in mental health crises.
The body cam record reveals the sometimes sordid, violent, and unpredictable nature of police work. It can clear an officer facing a false complaint, and it can confirm a complaint is true.
The people captured in such video footage have few ways to get the videos taken down. In many states the footage is a public record, and it was obtained lawfully and is accurate.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
