“Cover Your Ass”: Individual Accountability, Visual Documentation, and Everyday Policing in Miami

Abstract In the context of police violence and proliferation cameras, a growing body anthropological scholarship has sought to understand role photography its relationship everyday policing. While scholarly attention been given how cameras can intensify racialized visuality crime justify violent policing practices, this article discusses officers themselves use in their daily work. Police act as if they have high level impunity broad sense righteousness, yet still feel that work is surrounded by procedural bureaucratic uncertainties. Based on extensive research with departments Miami, Florida, I discuss document professionalism integrity. When making navigating societal scrutiny comes it, US record capture visual legal‐looking actions what exemplary good eyes hands officers, are used state individual performances, highlighting officer accountability misconduct while obscuring institutional responsibility.