Utilizing historical and ethnographic data, this article explicates a thesis that involves a paradox—campus police feel vulnerable as the “surveyed” precisely because they gain power as the “surveyor.” Toward this end, first, I identify a dramatic change in the status and function of campus police from watchmen to law enforcement professionals in the 1960s-1970s as a key historical context in which this paradox emerged. Then, I ethnographically explore forms this paradox has taken at the level of consciousness-behavior of campus officers. Attention is paid to how digital technologies of the twenty-first century transform campus policing, a process that redefines the relationship between the state and civil society and normalizes “watching” as a basic mechanism of new governance. I consider political and theoretical implications of new governance and the role writing can play in ethnographic studies of police to elucidate it.
CITATION STYLE
Inoue, M. (2020). Between Surveillance and Sousveillance: Or, Why Campus Police Feel Vulnerable Precisely Because They Gain Power. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 49(2), 229–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241619880323
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