“The computer made me do it”: A consideration of technology as an actor in police-citizen encounters

• In Event: Community policing a digitalized society

Abstract

Recently, UK police forces have introduced various technologies that alter the methods by which they interact with the public in face-to-face encounters. This includes devices such as body-worn video (BWV), mobile data terminals (MDT) and smart phones. 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 these in-person encounters. Through employing an Actor Network Theory framework to these data, we will demonstrate that police officers and will give agency to technology, such as by using it as a tool of coercion and power (‘The technology is telling me you are wanted’) and being directed by technology (sometimes in error) to stop people or vehicles (‘The system says you don’t have a license’). Further, officers have identified that BWV gives them a sense of safety when encountering ‘problem’ members of the public and can alter the behaviour of that public, even when it is not activated. Members of the public will also engage with technology in an encounter (such as by using their own camera phones), to redress the balance of power to a degree. We will consider technology as an actor in its own right in these interactions, and the extent to which it sets the rules for other actors in the encounter.

Authors

• Megan O'Neill, University of Dundee

• Estelle Clayton, Edinburgh Napier University

• Will Andrews, Keele University

• Aston Liz, Edinburgh Napier University

• Helen Wells, Keele University

• Ben Bradford, University College London