Social Media as a Police Accountability Mechanism

The easy capture, storage and online dissemination of bystander accounts of public order policing have given greater currency to public demands for policing institutions to be publicly answerable. This chapter details the importance of civilian scrutiny of public order policing through digital media technologies as a form of police accountability. The chapter shows the corroborative force of social media for complainants/victims within the broader context of the ‘social media test’. Drawing on police and non-police perspectives, the chapter progresses Ericson’s accountability dyad as an evaluative framework. The chapter argues that the perpetuity of digital media generates expectations of ‘perpetual accountability’. This perpetuity can pressure police to qualify remedial processes that are publicly available but may not be widely known. Concurrently, public confidence in police complaints handling and internal police disciplinary procedures remain a credibility problem for public police across many jurisdictions. These issues of police accountability emphasize the distinction between pressuring the police to account and holding the police to account. The chapter considers the implications of the durability of bystander accounts of police conduct posted online, and police apologies to LGBTQI communities as a form of police accountability.