The digitalisation of police work and its consequences for citizens

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

In recent years, police authorities around the world have increasingly relied on digital technologies to optimise their practices. This reliance begins with data storage and continues with crime mapping applications, up to predictive policing and the use of generative artificial intelligence technologies. While this development has not gone unnoticed in the criminological literature and there are many studies on how the police use digital technologies, there has not yet been enough discussion so far on how the relationship between the police and the public is changing through the use of digital tools.

It is clear that the use of digital technologies is changing police work and that this is having an impact on the relationship between the police and citizens. But what exactly do these changes look like and how can they be attributed to the type of tools and the rationale behind them? This question will be the primary focus of the ensuing panel discussion.

This question is all the more important as the police in most European countries are seen as ‘citizen police’, who are expected to maintain a relationship with the population that is both close and as co-operative as possible. It is therefore all the more surprising that when digital technologies are introduced, the possible effects on the relationship with the population are hardly considered. This makes it all the more important to put this connection up for discussion.

Subtopic

• Topic 5: Social Control and Criminal Justice / Policing and Law enforcement (Policing WG)

Chair

• Simon Egbert, Bielefeld University

Individual Presentations

• From prevention to repression: The unexpected consequences of crime prediction - Lauren Waardenburg, ESSEC Business School

• From Short-Term Deterrence to Long-Term Intervention: Promises and Challenges of Algorithmic Crime Prevention in Urban Spaces - Elena Esposito, Bielefeld University/University of Bologna; Simon Egbert, Bielefeld University

• Integrating Technology and Community Engagement: A Four Step Process for Addressing Public Space Issues - Kai Seidensticker, Criminological Research Unit (State Crime Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany); Isabel Krause, State Office of Criminal Investigation North Rhine-Westphalia