Evolving Policing in Digital Societies: The Italian Experience

• In Event: POLWG Panel 13. Policing in the Digital Age: Reflections on current practice and preparedness to police the online world

Abstract

In digital societies, characterized by technological transformations that make it impossible to distinguish between online and offline dimensions, both control and crime adopt new forms and scopes. Police forces are at the forefront of responding to these changes, striving to recognize new forms of crime and deploying appropriate tools. The risk is that in this process of reorienting interests and tools new criminalization processes may emerge, characterized by selectivity towards certain phenomena (and certain perpetrators) and neglect of others. Recent studies are questioning how the use of technology itself raises issues of discrimination, mass surveillance, and privacy concerns. In Italy, too, it is urgent to investigate these phenomena. The state police have recently undergone a period of reconfiguration, resulting in the creation of a new Central Directorate for Scientific Police and Cybersecurity. This directorate coordinates tasks previously carried out by the Scientific Police Service, which was part of the Central Anticrime Directorate, and those of the Postal and Communications Police Service. This contribution explores how, why, and with what prospects this reconfiguration occurred. Moreover, considering that the field of migration and border control is one of the areas in Europe where the risks associated with the technological transformations of control agencies are particularly visible, this contribution will also delve into this specific aspect in the Italian context.

Author

• Giulia Fabini, University of Bologna