The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement

by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Overview

Winner, 2018 Law & Legal Studies PROSE Award

The consequences of big data and algorithm-driven policing and its impact on law enforcement

In a high-tech command center in downtown Los Angeles, a digital map lights up with 911 calls, television monitors track breaking news stories, surveillance cameras sweep the streets, and rows of networked computers link analysts and police officers to a wealth of law enforcement intelligence.

This is just a glimpse into a future where software predicts future crimes, algorithms generate virtual “most-wanted” lists, and databanks collect personal and biometric information. The Rise of Big Data Policing introduces the cutting-edge technology that is changing how the police do their jobs and shows why it is more important than ever that citizens understand the far-reaching consequences of big data surveillance as a law enforcement tool.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson reveals how these new technologies —viewed as race-neutral and objective—have been eagerly adopted by police departments hoping to distance themselves from claims of racial bias and unconstitutional practices. After a series of high-profile police shootings and federal investigations into systemic police misconduct, and in an era of law enforcement budget cutbacks, data-driven policing has been billed as a way to “turn the page” on racial bias.

But behind the data are real people, and difficult questions remain about racial discrimination and the potential to distort constitutional protections.

In this first book on big data policing, Ferguson offers an examination of how new technologies will alter the who, where, when and how we police. These new technologies also offer data-driven methods to improve police accountability and to remedy the underlying socio-economic risk factors that encourage crime.

The Rise of Big Data Policing is a must read for anyone concerned with how technology will revolutionize law enforcement and its potential threat to the security, privacy, and constitutional rights of citizens.

Read an excerpt and interview with Andrew Guthrie Ferguson in The Economist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479869978
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson is Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Big Data Policing 1

1 Big Data's Watchful Eye: The Rise of Data Surveillance 7

2 Data Is the New Black: The Lure of Data-Driven Policing 20

3 Whom We Police: Person-Based Predictive Targeting 34

4 Where We Police: Place-Based Predictive Policing 62

5 When We Police: Real-Time Surveillance and Investigation 84

6 How We Police: Data Mining Digital Haystacks 107

7 Black Data: Distortions of Race, Transparency, and Law 131

8 Blue Data: Policing Data 143

9 Bright Data: Risk and Remedy 167

10 No Data: Filling Data Holes 177

Conclusion: Questions for the Future 187

Notes 203

Index 247

About the Author 259

Editorial Reviews

"A valuable foundation for understanding how prediction has suffused policing, in much the same way it has suffused the rest of society. Ferguson's criticisms are cogent, but more importantly he communicates clearly a broad factual picture of the situation as it stands today."

The Washington Free Beacon

"Andrew Ferguson has written a path-breaking book about a crucial civil rights struggle of our time. The more law enforcement automates its work, the more minority communities are getting caught in a pernicious web of surveillance and punishment. Ferguson's work is as comprehensive as it is illuminating. A must read."

Danielle Keats Citron

"In this timely, informative and at times disturbing book, Andrew Ferguson exposes the promises and perils of big data for policing and privacy. This critically important work provides a comprehensive account of how big data can help police solve crime and enhance police accountability and oversight. However, the book simultaneously exposes how the use of big data to inform policing practices can mask, reify and reinforce racial bias under the cloak of objectivity. The Rise of Big Data Policing is a must read for judges, policymakers, advocates, activists, and anyone else who wants to understand what big data is and how it is transforming our criminal justice institutions, the law, and our privacy expectations in surprising and disturbing ways that should concern us all."

L. Song Richardson

"The Rise of Big Data Policing shifts our frame of reference on modern policing from the celebration of aggressive patrol tactics to urgent questions of the role new police technologies in the production of security, the risks to freedom, and the levers of social control in the expanding surveillance state. Andrew Ferguson opens a window to define, categorize, understand, and showcase the transformation and digital deregulation of policing, and its implications for liberty and security. Ferguson teaches us not only the fault lines in how police watch us, but how we can turn the tables to use new algorithms to watch the police. At stake is nothing less than individual liberty and the democratic control of policing."

Jeffrey Fagan

"This is the perfect time to educate the public about the field of predictive policing. The predictive policing methods used today are in adolescence rather than infancy, so they beg for thoughtful reflection and public discussion. Andrew Ferguson is the ideal person for the job!"

Jane Bambauer

"The first-ever comprehensive overview, The Rise of Big Data Policing strikes an adept balance in covering both the promise and the peril of predictive policing. . . . Fergusons legal expertise serves well as he addresses the dilemma of translating predictions based on data into police remedies and it serves well throughout the other varied topics of this multi-faceted, well-researched book."

Big Think - Eric Siegel

"The first-ever comprehensive overview, The Rise of Big Data Policing strikes an adept balance in covering both the promise and the peril of predictive policing. . . . Fergusons legal expertise serves well as he addresses the dilemma of translating predictions based on data into police remedies and it serves well throughout the other varied topics of this multi-faceted, well-researched book."

Big Think

"In this timely, informative and at times disturbing book, Andrew Ferguson exposes the promises and perils of big data for policing and privacy. This critically important work provides a comprehensive account of how big data can help police solve crime and enhance police accountability and oversight. However, the book simultaneously exposes how the use of big data to inform policing practices can mask, reify and reinforce racial bias under the cloak of objectivity. The Rise of Big Data Policing is a must read for judges, policymakers, advocates, activists, and anyone else who wants to understand what big data is and how it is transforming our criminal justice institutions, the law, and our privacy expectations in surprising and disturbing ways that should concern us all."

From the Publisher

"The case Ferguson makes is inherently interesting and increasingly urgent."

Los Angeles Review of Books

"Ferguson has an incredible command of the many subjects that fall under the 'big data' umbrella, and his writing is at its best when social, cultural, and technological dynamics coalesce into one story. The book is particularly strong when Ferguson takes on how classism and racism shape smart policing datasets, which epitomize how 'big data' policing is held back by the many limitations of larger legal structures but is presented as the solution to that very problem."

Gizmodo

★ 2017-07-12
A survey of predictive policing: how data makes it possible, its benefits and pitfalls, and what it may portend for American law enforcement and race relations.In an important book that goes to the heart of issues at the forefront of contemporary life, Ferguson (Law/Univ. of the District of Columbia; Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen's Guide to Constitutional Action, 2012) examines how police departments are now using supposedly "objective" data-driven surveillance technologies to work more effectively in a budget-cutting era and to avoid claims of racial bias. In this engaging, well-written narrative, based on studies and a deep understanding of policing, the author describes the growing police use of shared data (the National Crime Information Center database is "reportedly accessed 12 million times a day by authorities"), its effects on how and where police work, and its usefulness in predicting future criminals (just as Amazon uses data to identify repeat shoppers). Some uses of data are surprising, as in Chicago, New Orleans, and other cities, where police maintain "heat lists" of individuals likely to be involved in crimes and then write to and visit the listed suspects, warning them to avoid criminal activity. The data used in predictive policing is prone to bias and error, warns Ferguson, and it includes "black data," which is opaque, hidden in complex algorithms deemed proprietary by software vendors who work with police. Using erroneous data can lead to "aggressive police presence, surveillance, and perceived harassment" in poor communities of color. In fact, "big data policing reifies many of the systemic inequalities of traditional policing," writes the author, who is candid in his assessment of the role of implicit bias in law enforcement. He concludes with questions he urges police departments to ask about racial bias, error, and accountability in data-driven policing. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how technology is changing American policing.

Kirkus Reviews