Sousveillance

Sousveillance is the practice of recording activities by members of the public using wearable or portable devices, a term coined to contrast "watching from below" with institutional surveillance "from above." It encompasses inverse surveillance - systematic monitoring of surveillers such as police - and other forms like hierarchical sousveillance where citizens film authorities, alibi sousveillance meant to produce exculpatory evidence, and community sensing projects (e.g., cyclists measuring air pollution, crowdmapping of CCTV locations). Concrete examples include grassroots Copwatch groups that videotape police, ubiquitous dashcam captures of events like the 2013 Russian meteor and a 2015 airliner crash, and Hasan Elahi’s life-log as a defensive record after erroneous terrorism prosecution.

Arguments for sousveillance present it as a tool of reciprocal accountability and public empowerment: distributed first-person recordings can expose official misconduct, create legal evidence, and shift power dynamics. Empirical findings include a Rialto, California pilot where police wearing body cameras saw reductions in complaints and use of force. Criticisms and complexities include privacy risks (especially for victims), changes in citizen-officer behavior, and resistance from surveillance actors. Cultural analyses expand the concept into "dark sousveillance" traditions of resistance and the "sousveillant assemblage," framing everyday recording as a political practice that contests institutional power.