Police Use of Force Through the Lens: Examining Video-recorded Incidents

Police Use of Force Through the Lens provides a comprehensive look at video-recorded use-of-force incidents and how video influences perceptions about the appropriateness of the force used. No other book on the market takes a historical, critical, and contemporary look at how video footage from dash cameras, body-worn cameras, surveillance cameras, or handheld cameras influence how people perceive the appropriateness of force used by law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and security officers.

Supported with academic sources along with practical examples that connect academics to the real world, the book educates readers about the history of cameras in law enforcement, significant events that influenced the proliferation of cameras in law enforcement, how use-of-force incidents are evaluated, how camera factors influence perceptions, and how human factors can impact how officers perceive and recall what occurred during use-of-force incidents.

A thorough discussion of the benefits and disadvantages of cameras―including how camera perspectives can be misleading and incomplete―challenges the presumption of the objectiveness of video and posits a systematic framework to help evaluators or viewers of video-recorded use-of-force incidents arrive at more objective conclusions.

Mike R. Knetzger served as a Wisconsin law enforcement officer for nearly 30 years and retired in 2022 as a patrol sergeant with the Green Bay Police Department (GBPD). Knetzger has earned a doctoral degree in criminal justice management (Colorado Technical University/CTU), a master’s degree in public administration (University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh), a bachelor’s degree in justice and public policy (Concordia University – Wisconsin), and an associate degree in police science (Waukesha County Technical College – Wisconsin). He is a certified Department of Justice Unified Tactical Trainer/Instructor and Wisconsin Technical College Instructor, and has been teaching part-time for the past 22 years for Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC). He teaches in the criminal justice program, police academy, and on specialized law enforcement topics, and is affiliated with doctoral-level programs at CTUonline. Knetzger has testified as an expert witness in use-of-force and standard field sobriety cases, and has consulted for police chiefs, plaintiff attorneys, and other law enforcement leaders related to use-of-force, policy and procedure, and other contemporary policing issues.