Theorizing technoscience in-of policing and police studies

• In Event: The interplay of Police and Science: what can we learn from each other?

Abstract

Science and technology have arguably become constitutive to contemporary policing and security practice. At the same time, the influence of Science and Technology Studies (STS) concepts in police studies and practice is expanding but is far from reaching the potential it has achieved in other areas where science and technology are key. On the one hand, a growing critical collaboration between STS scholarship and policing and security communities sees the emergence of fruitful analyses, dissecting a plethora of political, ethical, social issues related to new technologies and their security uses (Egbert & Leese 2020, Leese et al. 2020, Niculescu-Dinca 2021). On the other hand, less scholarship has been directed towards police science itself, reflecting on the enterprise with the epistemological predispositions and conceptual frameworks of science and technology studies. What did scholars and practitioners mean with the notion of science in police science and how is it related to the one of technoscience(s)? This paper engages with key writings in the police studies literature that have problematised the enterprise of police science and analyses them through the lens of various conceptions of the notion of technoscience as put forth in the STS literature. From this analysis the paper reflects on the influence and potential of the concept in police studies, deriving implications for research and practice.

Author

• Vlad Niculescu-Dinca, Leiden University