Participatory Policing: Code Blue Cam and the Disciplinary Power of Police Body Camera Videos on YouTube

Abstract

This article identifies an emerging genre of police body camera content that we term “participatory policing”: social media videos composed from official police footage, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and transformed into viral entertainment by amateur content creators who add narration, sound, and visual effects. Through an analysis of videos, viewer comments, and the broader media ecosystem surrounding the YouTube channel Code Blue Cam (2021–present), we demonstrate how this genre valorizes law enforcement while stigmatizing criminalized “others.” We argue that three key features—the “the body cam gaze” (our term for the first-person perspective from police body-worn cameras), creator editing and commentary, and active viewer participation—work together to extend police surveillance and disciplinary power beyond traditional law enforcement. By inviting audiences to surveil, categorize, and judge police targets, this genre inculcates viewers into the disciplinary apparatus of surveillance culture.