The slow-motion bias

Video evidence and eyewitness accounts: Why people see different things

In February 2007 the Supreme Court heard a case that hinged on about 15 minutes of video evidence from two police vehicles’ dashboard cameras: footage showed the front end of a police car as it pursued a driver in Georgia before it rammed into the back of the driver’s car, which subsequently crashed. The driver, 19-year-old Victor Harris, was left permanently paralyzed by the incident. Harris sued the officer who hit his car. He alleged that the officer, Timothy Scott, had used excessive force. Before the Supreme Court considered the case, lower court judges had already reviewed the video footage and found in Harris’s favor, with one writing that Harris had presented little threat to the public despite his speeding ….[READ]