Abstract

JASSO LOPEZ, Lucía Carmina  and  JASSO GONZALEZ, Carolina. Police abuse, discretionality and surveillance technologies in Latin America. Iztapalapa. Rev. cienc. soc. humanid. [online]. 2021, vol.42, n.90, pp.119-144.  Epub Jan 31, 2021. ISSN 2007-9176.  https://doi.org/10.28928/ri/902021/atc3/jassolopezl/jassogonzalezc.

Police abuse constitutes a problem of sociological interest and an object of social concern derived from the “new visibility” acquired by violent interactions between the police and the population, as a result of the different uses of surveillance technologies, particularly of forms such as surveillance from below or sousveillance. Based on the systematization and analysis of qualitative data, we discussed the impact of surveillance technologies in 129 cases of police abuse recorded on video in Latin America. The results indicate that video surveillance has become a relevant mechanism to document and determine in which cases serious human rights violations were committed; however, institutional discretion, deficiencies in registries, and the power of state agents to decide when or not register an arbitrary practice, make it impossible to become effective control mechanisms to sanction and avoid arbitrary practices.

Keywords : Surveillance; police lethality; violence; new visibility; sousveillance.

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