Predict and surveil
Data, discretion, and the future of policing, by Sarah Brayne: A review by Karolina La Fors
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16860710 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karolina La Fors (0000-0003-2030-7555, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 327-330 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-25 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Information Polity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1875-8754 • E-ISSN: 1570-1255 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.3233/ip-219008 |
| OpenAlex | W3196411210 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
s work, Predict and Surveil offers a convincing critique of the risks involved with crime prediction algorithms.Is it still, and will it still remain possible, for a person to change how law enforcement professionals perceive his/her future, and to oppose an algorithmic prediction?Put it differently, can crime predicting algorithms anticipate individuals falling into criminality, or do they actually perpetuate individuals falling into crime once 'marked'?Brayne offers a highly compelling, lucid, and densely detailed sociological account of how data-intensive and artificial intelligence (AI) based, predictive policing practices render it increasingly impossible for surveilled, and apprehended citizens, to contest police suspicions.The empirical works is the product of a five-year long ethnographic, dedicated work during which the author followed the artificial intelligence-led police professionals within the third largest local law enforcement agency in the United States, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).One of the main achievements of the book lies in the richness of her ethnographic description in which the author never loses sight of her own position as a researcher.In this sense, her analysis shows us the daily routines of the "social side" (p.4) big data analytics.She demonstrates how AI technologies reinforce and perpetuate criminal suspicions through aggregating and correlating vast amounts of multi-contextualized data, and how any encounter with the LAPD increases the chances of becoming a suspect with subsequent discriminatory and unequal treatment.Brayne's book guides the reader through seven chapters, beginning with how the objectives for improving crime mapping practices historically shaped and constructed contemporary big data-intensive policing practices of the LAPD.She describes how these practices became the "dye that illuminates the cracks in the [criminal justice] system" (p.27).In chapter two the author shows how the historical eagerness of the police for datafication as an optimization goal became operationalized through an initial respone to the need for better allocation of resources through ''pin maps" (p.13); through to responding to demands for enhanced police accountability and transparency (triggered by high-profile cases such as Rodney King); to reacting to the need for legislative improvements ("offender management", p. 31).Brayne shows how each of these purposes gradually turned policing practices towards a scientific approach.Planning and allocating resources in a fashion that is free from political influence optimizes crime prevention, and leads to the main objective and driving force for acquiring and analyzing more data: "precision policing" (p.23).She demonstrates how police forces, big data innovating companies, and
Criminology · Discretion · Political science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Law · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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