“It’s ok, I’m not using Facebook”: Mitigating the effects of digital technologies on perceptions of procedural justice in police-public encounters

• In Event: INTERACT: Investigating New Types of Engagement, Response and Contact Technology in Policing

Abstract

Recently, UK police forces have introduced various technologies that alter the methods by which they interact with the public. Many forces have also begun to embrace the concept of procedural justice to secure legitimacy and (in turn) public compliance and cooperation. What has not received sufficient attention is the extent to which these two trends are compatible. The effect of technologically mediating police-public contacts and, in turn, the consequences for the British policing principle of ‘policing by consent’, are unknown. Using data from in-depth ethnographic observations of response, community and traffic policing units in three UK police forces, as well as focus groups with the public, we will demonstrate how digital technologies are perceived and navigated during in-person encounters. This includes devices such as body-worn video (BWV), mobile data terminals (MDT) and smart phones. We find that officers display several techniques, not all of which are compliant with policy, to mitigate the effects of the technology in the encounter, often whilst members of the public are engaging with their own devices. We will discuss how the public use methods of interaction to mitigate or comply with officers’ data collection. We will explore the implications of this for conceptions of procedural justice.

Authors

• Megan O'Neill, University of Dundee

• Will Andrews, Keele University

• Estelle Clayton, Edinburgh Napier University

• Elizabeth Aston, Edinburgh Napier University

• Helen Wells, Keele University

• Ben Bradford, University College London