The Discreet Charm of Prediction: Understandings of Digital Policing

29/01/2024 - 30/01/2024
09:00 - 16:45
Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 Copenhagen, Danmark
Programme and registration
CUPP final conference

The final conference of the NordForsk funded research project Critical Understanding of Predictive Policing (CUPP) is taking place at the IT University of Copenhagen. With two conference days, several panels and 10 parallel tracks with almost 40 presentations, we are aiming for multi-faceted and productive conversations. In total, we are expecting up to 200 participants, comprising researchers as well as practitioners and concerned citizens with an interest in the implications of an increasingly digital police.

Over the past 20 years, police organizations and practices across the globe have adopted data-driven tools to predict and prevent crime (Ferguson, 2017; Brayne, 2021). In this conference, we will focus on the digital transformations within the police that have both inspired and engendered new sociotechnical imaginaries that either promise efficiency and security or stress the potential risks for mass surveillance and algorithmic bias.

The discreet charm of prediction, in terms of increased efficiency, reduced fiscal burdens, improved accuracy of decision-making, streamlined data management, and lower crime rates, has thus been met with skepticism, significant critique, and even warnings of dystopia. The global rise of predictive policing methods is an example of the charm so far, yet its more recent fall is meanwhile indicative of the skepticism with which it has been met.

The overall goal of this conference is to better understand what law enforcement and predictive policing have become today, with the ongoing digital transformation and platformization of key functions of the police organization.

Kontakter

Bodil Aurstad. Photo: NordForsk

Bodil Aurstad

Spesialrådgiver