Experts warn of overexposure to violent police body camera footage

Sounds of terror and scenes of violence leave most humans feeling anxious, fearful and stressed, yet so many are compelled to watch police body camera footage after horrific events when the videos are released to the public. Northwestern University experts in psychiatry and pediatrics advise people to turn off those kinds of videos.

“Seeing violence is stressful for us and witnessing harm to another human is a painful experience,” said Sheehan Fisher, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “In addition to that, it depends on what the type of violence is and the reason behind it,” he told Newsweek on Saturday.

In recent months, police worn body camera footage has been readily shared on news channels and websites, and often goes viral on social media. Fisher believes Americans have been “overexposed to violence within the news.”

Just last week, the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) released body camera footage showing officers take out the Old National Bank suspected shooter within minutes. The nation’s 146th mass shooting left five dead in addition to the shooter.

The videos were captured by the body cameras of LMPD Officer Nickolas Wilt and Officer Cory “CJ” Galloway and show the officers arriving to the scene and immediately working to stop the suspect. Wilt, who had graduated from the police academy just 10 days prior, was struck in the head by the suspect’s gunfire.

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released a similar video in March of the moment officers took down the Covenant School shooting suspect, who is accused of killing three children and three adults at the school. The MNPD’s YouTube video does display a graphic content warning that requires viewers to accept and click on the warning before viewing the video. Fisher said all videos that contain real-life violence towards people or animals should have similar viewing precautions.

Viewing virtual violence can have such an impact on the human psyche that it can even lead to depression, said Audrey Brewer, a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s Hospital and a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

“We want to have more transparency in terms of what’s happening in our world, but I think it’s also trying to find that balance of what is necessary to really expose ourselves to because these images are very dramatic and can cause trauma and high stress levels depending on what someone maybe has already experienced in their life,” Brewer told Newsweek on Sunday.

In those under the age of 18, virtual violence has been linked to angry and aggressive behaviors. Brewer said parents need to be extra cautious with what their kids are watching on TV or online.

“These videos are scary, and sometimes kids aren’t able to understand what they’re watching,” Brewer said. “As their brains are still developing, when they’re exposed to these violent videos or things like that, it impacts their mental health and can lead to anger or aggression.”

While experts highlight the risks of tuning into real-life violence, they say there are some benefits to this type of footage being shared with the public. It puts a spotlight on the injustice minorities in America face, specifically at the hands of law enforcement. It also gives viewers a front-row seat to how police and bystanders react to events which are often graphic, said Fisher, who is also Northwestern Medicine psychologist. “It humanizes it, but once again, overexposure can also create the opposite effect,” he said. “You don’t want to become desensitized to it by normalizing it.”

Brewer said people who do watch virtual violence need to have a healthy outlet to cope. She suggested things like meditation, talking to loved ones or a therapist, journaling and walking outside. She said a coping mechanism is especially important for children.

“Sometimes when we don’t have those outlets to combat some of those stressors or know how to do that it can be quite traumatizing and it can cause our stress levels to stay consistently up and that’s quite damaging to our brain overtime, especially for young minds.”