Data-driven policing: Negotiating the legitimacy of the police

Jansen, Josephina 2022. Data-driven policing: Negotiating the legitimacy of the police. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The growing use of data-driven policing raises pertinent questions as to how the datafication of society changes the understanding of police power, crime, and justice. Media and surveillance scholars have examined the ideological grounds of datafication and the operations of global surveillance regimes. However, how data-driven policing tools are used and their impact on the justification and negotiation of police power have not been explored. To address these gaps this dissertation seeks to answer the following research questions: what is the nature of data-driven policing? And what is the relationship between datafication and police power? To answer these questions, I present original empirical research on two functions: data-driven risk scoring and biometric recognition in three countries and civic responses to their uses. I have engaged in fifty-six semi-structured interviews with experts, police practitioners, and civic actors; participant observation in police and civic meetings; and the study of grey literature. My findings show that researching data as practice offers a nuanced account of to what end and on what grounds these tools become integrated within policing, and approaching data as struggle provides insights into what's at stake with the datafication of policing. I introduce the term organisational optimisation logic to foreground how data-driven policing is seen to ‘fix’ selfdefined organisational challenges and allow the police to conform to the normative expectations datafication places upon public authorities. I put forward the term politics of injustice to account for the stratified ways data-driven policing invokes invisible hierarchies about whose voices count in the discussion around police power. These findings, I argue, have broader implications for how we come to understand police power and justice in a datafied society. I conclude by introducing the concept of data legitimacy to theorise on the relationship between datafication and the legitimacy claim of the police.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 May 2022
Last Modified:	20 May 2023 01:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/149904

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