Predictable policing: New technology,old bias,and future resistance in big data surveillance

Abstract

Within this article, we explore the rise of predictive policing in the United States as a form of big data surveillance. Bringing together literature from communication, criminology, and science and technology studies, we use a case study of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA to outline that predictive policing, rather than being a novel development, is in fact part of a much larger, historical network of power and control. By examining the mechanics of these policing practices: the data inputs, behavioral outputs, as well as the key controllers of these systems, and the individuals who influenced their adoption, we show that predictive policing as a form of big data surveillance is a sociotechnical system that is wholly human-constructed, biases and all. Identifying these elements of the surveillance network then allows us to turn our attention to the resistive practices of communities who historically and presently live under surveillance – pointing to the types of actions and imaginaries required to combat the myth and allure that swirls around the rhetoric of big data surveillance today.