On Netflix, we see through the eyes of the police
Everyone who has as much as has zapped past a World Cup match in recent weeks has hardly been able to escape the referee’s camera, where you get to see the game from his perspective. Blurry, chaotic movie clips whose purpose is mostly pure entertainment. For my own part, it has probably mostly resulted in an increased sympathy for the judges – you get a glimpse of how quickly everything goes. After all, the judges are generally positive about technology that facilitates their work and makes people stop being so mad at them all the time. That’s why the whole bunch wants VAR.
The body camera is also finding its way into the culture. Even there, the purpose is of course entertainment, to create a different kind of nerve. What we witness is exactly what the protagonists witness, literally their eye-catching. As a dramaturgical approach, it is easy to understand the allure. Netflix new “The perfect neighbor” is entirely from the point of view of the police cameras, while their even newer “Maternal instinct” mostly has the element of spice.
The former depicts a woman who constantly calls the police complaining that the neighborhood kids are loud and playing on her property. The increasingly exhausted police force drives out and does its routine checks, but there is rarely anything to go on. Until the end, when they find one of the children’s mothers shot to death outside the woman’s door. The area is dominated by a black demographic, the woman is white. In the film, you get the feeling that the police discreetly take the side of the families with children, which is completely reasonable, the woman comes across as lonely, small-minded and downright racist.
“Maternal instinct” is, as I said, a more conventional documentary, but the part that is filmed through police cameras is almost more than you can handle. A car is stopped at the roadside, a woman holds a newborn child in her hands. She claims to be on her way to the hospital after delivering the baby in the car, but it soon becomes apparent that indeed the baby has just been delivered, but not by her.
Both cases are terrible, but they also have in common that you gain some confidence in the work of the police. Once the crime has been committed, the arm of the law is quickly at hand, and the screws are tightened until the notorious liars have nowhere to go. The interrogators work methodically and patiently. The world may be unfair, but that does not mean that one escapes punishment. The impression is reinforced by the ultra-documentary, shaky photographic evidence.
At the same time, one documentary is rarely a documentary anymore. Almost all personal portraits that are released on the major streaming services are rather a kind of agreement where both parties win. The person being portrayed has a team that makes sure everything is just right, so it’s exposure rather than an exposé or a review. And Netflix gets a good story. Or at least a story.
“Perfect neighbor” and “Maternal instinct” are undeniably cases of documentary stories, no one can say otherwise. But it is also a camera angle that puts the police in a good light.
Within the Swedish the police, the body cameras have only been used for a few years. In the UK and USA, for example, they have been widely used for over a decade. The introduction was launched as part of the increased transparency that was requested. The results have varied – among other things, the BBC was able to report widespread mismanagement, with delayed release times, muted sound, footage sequences where material was missing.
Jack Hildén is a writer and temporary deputy culture director at Aftonbladet.
It is in the nature of the dynamic that this kind of documentary portrayal takes the side of law enforcement. It’s been that way ever since “Cops” and all the variations of the show released since then – car chases, blue light officers, drug smuggling at airports and customs, and so on.
In part, there are purely practical reasons: you can make an appointment with a police officer, but it is more difficult with a Vietnamese mother of five who swallowed heroin ampoules. In part, it is also safe with the narrative that right is right and wrong is wrong. The more complex issues are referred to fiction. In the real world, the camera is turned on a little when it suits best.
