Public support for facial recognition via police body-worn cameras: Findings from a list experiment

摘要

Emerging technologies like facial recognition have the potential to change the delivery of public services, but also to reshape the notion of citizenship. The factors influencing the consent of the governed matters to gauge if this specific surveillance technology might be deployed further. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has identified social norms as a contributor to technology adoption. We test social norms for the adoption of facial recognition technology based on an experiment with a sample of residents of New Hampshire through a phone survey, and with a sample of Americans via a web survey. The experiment estimates the overt and real support for facial recognition through police body-worn cameras. Our results are that gender, age and political affiliation matters to explain support for facial recognition via BWC, as females and non-Trump voters harbor reticence that they only express when provided with a measure of anonymity.