Can You Have Too Much Video Recording?

Videotapes are inherently persuasive and powerful.

The persuasive power of videotape evidence is self evident in the old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If that is true, then how much more valuable is a continuously moving picture, complete with sound?

Studies have shown that learning and retention of information is based more on sight than any other sense, and that the human brain can process and store a large amount of visual information.

Videotape is capable of communicating the gestures, expressions, voice qualities, and mannerisms of those involved, as well as convey a sense that the viewer is literally a “fly on the wall” in a particular event. Because of its apparent realism, and the fact that many in our society are used to television as the primary medium for gaining news and other information, there is a strong tendency to believe that any videotaped information is necessarily accurate. This tendency, coupled with an individual’s subjective interpretation of the events unfolding on the videotape, can be a powerfully persuasive statement, with sometimes unintended consequences.

Example: The repeated display of the now infamous Rodney King beating by the Los Angles police department, and its direct effect or sparking what we now referred to as the Los Angeles riots.

A more recent example occurred this October in New Orleans, when a videotape was made of police officers beating a 64-year old retired teacher, and was compounded by the further videotape of one of the officer’s very physical confrontation with one of the newspersons present.  Although the images on the videotape are not in dispute, the meaning that people give to those images vary.  Some may focus on race in that the teacher was black while the officers were white, others may interpret the images completely differently.

In terms of evidence relating to a crime, videotape evidence can have a very emotional impact. Images of a homicide victim’s body at the crime scene or of the victim’s family can have a severe emotional impact.