Introducing audio-vision into evidence: the impact of audio recordings and their technical limitations in police use of force cases

ABSTRACT

This article explores the technical limitations of audio recordings and how those limitations impact the reliability of sound evidence in police use of force cases. In audiovisual recordings, audio is often assumed neutral, redundant or to have the same limitations as its visual counterpart. Bringing together film theorist Michel Chion’s concept of audio-vision and the technical specifications of mobile audio recording, this article highlights how design priorities and compression processes can influence the way sound evidence is perceived. By failing to acknowledge audio recordings as distinct from their visual counterparts, they are rendered invisible and are therefore under scrutinized throughout legal processes. This neglect becomes notably problematic in cases of police use of force where audio/visual recordings often work to bolster the already privileged officer testimony.

KEYWORDS:

• Sound evidence
• audio
• audiovisual
• police
• use of force

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the editor for putting together this special issue and the two reviewers who kindly took the time to provide thoughtful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Examples include the cases of Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sammy Yatim, and Anthony Lamar Smith.

2. Alpert and Dunham (2004) define use of force as action taken to limit or control the movement of another individual (20–21).

3. For more on police culture see Loftus 2009; Reiner 1985.

4. For more on aural surveillance practices see Abu Hamdan 2014; Segrave 2014.

5. For more on the ocularcentricity of Western legal traditions see Haldar 1996; Valverde 2003.

6. Ocularcentrism, coined by Martin Jay (1991) refers to the social and cultural practice of privileging what we can see over experiences mediated by the other senses.

7. The term synesthesia (sometimes synaesthesia) refers to phenomena where two or more senses come together to form our sensory experience. For more on synesthesia see Howes 2006; Van Campen 2008.

8. For more on noise see Attali 2012; Schwartz 2003.

9. The question surrounding this particular audio recording was whether it was Martin or Zimmerman screaming “help”. Zimmerman argued that he shot Martin in self-defense – something that might have been corroborated or undermined by the recording.

10. For more on silence see Gautier 2015; Sterne 2003.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and Carleton University.

Notes on contributors

Jessica J. Chapman

Jessica J. Chapman is a PhD candidate at Carleton University in the School of Journalism and Communication. Her research focuses on media and the senses with particular attention to themes of surveillance, law, and policing.