The Surveillant Reflex: Political Threat and the Market Expansion of Home Surveillance
Mobilization contesting surveillance practices can redistribute social monitoring rather than reduce it. When protests challenge a public institution that people associate with social stability, they may respond by purchasing private alternatives. I examine this possibility in the case of the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, which challenged racialized policing and directly targeted the use of surveillance by police. Using purchasing histories from a nationally representative consumer panel, I estimate discrete-time hazard models of first-time home surveillance camera adoption. I find that camera adoption increased with sustained protest activity at the county level. This association was strongest in Republican-leaning counties, suggesting that political context shaped how households interpreted local protests. The difference was also larger for cameras than other non-camera security devices, such as locks and alarms. Households specifically bought the ability to monitor their surroundings rather than general home protection. These findings suggest that households may respond to challenges to public institutions by privately acquiring that capacity for themselves. I refer to this process as protective consumption, or the private acquisition of goods or services that reproduce or supplement a capacity associated with a contested institution.