Hidden Camera Activism: Overview

Introduction

Hidden camera activism can be a uniquely effective tool for exposing corruption and human rights violations. Capturing these incidents on film provides visible proof of bad behavior, which can be used to confront the perpetrator or start a criminal prosecution. The "hidden" aspect of these investigations is crucial, as people will often behave very differently when they know they are being watched. With the ability to record actions undetected, the activist is able to capture unethical or illegal activities that take place only when people have their guard down.

Unfortunately, there are also some drawbacks to the use of hidden cameras. Video clips can be taken out of context and used to make accusations that cannot really be supported by the evidence available. This is particularly true if the activist sets up a scenario to "bait" the target into engaging in unethical or illegal behavior for the purpose of videotaping the exchange. The hidden nature of the recordings also raises both legal and ethical concerns regarding the individual's right to privacy. In some states, secretly recording someone without his or her permission is against the law and could result in civil or criminal charges against the activist. Other states have laws prohibiting the use of hidden cameras in specific situations. The difference among state laws on this issue underscores the still-evolving societal debate about people using hidden cameras to address a wide range of problematic behaviors.

Understanding the Discussion

Hidden Camera: "Hidden camera" is a common term for secretly recording video and/or audio of another person without his or her knowledge or permission.

Human Rights: Human rights refer to the broadly encompassing rights of all people, particularly those who belong to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities, to conserve and protect their culture; freely assemble and associate; obtain an education; practice their religion; and generally live free from persecution.

Human Trafficking: Human trafficking is the illegal act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, transferring, or receiving people against their will, by the use of threats, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power. Victims of human trafficking are misused in various ways, including forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar situations, removal of bodily organs, or other means.

Sweatshop: A sweatshop is a manufacturing plant (usually for clothing) where workers are subject to long hours in unsafe working conditions, for very little pay.

History

One of the earliest and most highly publicized uses of a hidden camera situation occurred in 1991, when a bystander, Los Angeles resident George Holliday, captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police using a home video camera. Police had attempted to stop King for speeding, but he led them on a high-speed car chase instead. Blood tests later revealed that he was intoxicated and had refused to pull over because the charge of driving while intoxicated would violate his parole for a prior robbery conviction. The police were finally able to stop him, but the officers said he was behaving strangely and still resisting arrest when he exited the car, so they needed to use force to make the arrest.

Given the circumstances, it would have been easy to accept that force was needed to arrest King. But the scene that was captured on tape showed, quite graphically, the treatment he received. Even once King could easily be handcuffed and put into a patrol car, the officers continued to beat him. If the incident had not been captured on video, it might have been easy to dismiss. But with the excessive use of force so clearly visible in the video, the situation could not be ignored. Holliday initially offered the video to the Los Angeles police department (LAPD), and when they refused it, passed it to local television station KTLA. From there, the video was broadcast nationwide and internationally.

The footage was used as an example of the racism and abuse believed to run rampant within the LAPD. All four officers involved were fired, but in 1992, they were all found not guilty by a California jury. This verdict, which seemed to defy what was evident to many viewers of the video, provoked widespread outrage and even riots in parts of Los Angeles, resulting in more than fifty deaths and nearly $1 billion in property damage. Guilty verdicts in a subsequent federal civil rights trial sent two of the four police officers to prison.

Over the years, people have used hidden video cameras for various causes. Video capturing situations involving the abuse of patients in nursing homes led to the passage of elder abuse laws in the United States and the establishment of the National Center on Elder Abuse. People have also used hidden cameras (known as "nanny cams") to capture the abuse of children by caretakers, or sometimes even by their own parents. These uses are especially important because they bring to light the mistreatment of vulnerable groups of people who may be physically unable to report the abuse themselves, intimidated by the fear of retaliation, or coerced into silence.

At the international level, hidden cameras have been used to capture human rights violations all over the world. In 1992, musician and activist Peter Gabriel founded an organization called WITNESS, which works with local human rights organizations around the world to provide video equipment and teaches people how to capture the human rights violations. With support from WITNESS, activists all over the world have been able to use the power of video to promote change.

One such example publicized the working conditions in a garment factory in Saipan, US Northern Mariana Islands. The film, Behind the Labels: Garment Workers on U.S. Saipan, released in 2001, exposed the circumstances under which Chinese and Filipino women were recruited to work in the factory, and the mistreatment they suffered while they were there. The film was widely distributed during 2002 as a result of joint efforts from several human rights organizations, including WITNESS, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the Campaign for Labor Rights, UNITE!, and the National Organization for Women (NOW). At the same time, major retailers, such as The Gap and Wal-Mart, were coming under fire for using sweatshop labor to produce their goods. As a result of the widespread publicity of these unethical practices and aided by video footage of the inappropriate working conditions, a lawsuit was filed against several retailers engaging in sweatshop practices. The retailers entered a settlement, agreeing to reform the working conditions in their factories, as well as provide additional payments to former workers to compensate them fairly for their work.

In the early twenty-first century, hidden cameras were used to successfully achieve political ends. Beginning in 2007, conservative activist James O'Keefe began to capture various organizations and people in what he characterized as unethical and illegal behavior. He began working with another social conservative, Lila Rose, to target Planned Parenthood clinics. Rose and O'Keefe used hidden camera video and voice recordings of interactions with Planned Parenthood to catch employees of the organization accepting donations from individuals voicing racist views as a motivation for their donations. They also caught an employee helping Rose, posing as a pregnant teenager, fabricate a birthdate that would permit her to obtain an abortion.

In 2009, O'Keefe partnered with Hannah Giles to pose as a pimp and prostitute at ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) offices around the country, to ask for advice on running their "business." They secretly videotaped several employees giving them advice on tax evasion, human trafficking, and child prostitution.

In 2011, O'Keefe again made headlines by videotaping two NPR (National Public Radio) executives who referred to the Tea Party movement as xenophobic and racist. O'Keefe was criticized for "selectively editing" the tapes for maximum impact, but there was widespread criticism about the executives' opinionated comments. As a result, both officials resigned.

All three cases of O'Keefe's hidden camera activism resulted in political backlash against those organizations. ACORN lost federal funding and folded in 2010 and in 2011, the US House of Representatives voted to defund both Planned Parenthood and NPR.

Hidden Camera Activism Today

Hidden camera activism is alive and well today, aided by the widespread availability of small, easily hidden recording devices, camera phones, and the ability to quickly post video on the Internet for the whole world to see. Organizations such as WITNESS continue to provide equipment and training to those in a position to capture these events on film, while organizations devoted to specific causes, such as fair labor practices or patient advocacy, use the footage to drive much-needed reform in many areas.

There is ongoing debate about the legality of hidden video. Recording secret video footage is legal in some states, but recording audio without the other party's permission is illegal in most states. As a result, hidden video footage (and/or its accompanying audio soundtrack) could be excluded as evidence for legal reasons; this means that, even if the proof exists, it cannot be used as legal evidence in a trial and prosecution might not be possible. Even more troubling, it could mean arrest and jail time for the person who made the recording.

There are also a number of unresolved ethical considerations involved in hidden camera activism. At the outset, it is an invasion of privacy; whether this invasion has legal consequences depends on the situation and the location, but it is unnerving to think that one could be videotaped at any time without knowledge or consent. It is also important to consider what is done with the video once it is captured. Video can tell very different stories depending on how it is edited, and many hidden camera activists have been criticized for editing video or staging scenarios to achieve the results they want. There is an additional danger of assuming widespread corruption within an organization based on the actions of a few individuals.

Hidden camera activism shows no signs of slowing down as the media and the public continue to debate the need to balance revelations of wrongdoing, especially among vulnerable populations, and the need to protect people's right to privacy.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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