Additional Pattern One: The Tyranny of the Visual

A pattern evident from the cross-case analysis is that a clear, moving visual representation of misconduct appears to have a significant effect in raising the public profile of, and in increasing the severity of the penalties ensuing from, a police-civilian interaction that has been recorded and disseminated via user-generated online video.

The constraints of the present research do not allow the development of this observed pattern into a robust theory.

Research opportunities for this pattern may include quantitative analysis of police-civilian interaction outcomes where sufficiently large populations of both videorecorded and unrecorded interactions are available. Qualitative research on the theory of the tyranny of the visual may also be rewarding, although such research faces additional challenges, such as definition of concepts, that may require more exploratory or descriptive study before explanatory work may begin. It may also prove useful to scholars of police administration to perform research in the content analysis and classification of user-generated online video as a guide to police decision-making following the public release of videos.