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26 Theoretical Criminology 3 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/thcr26 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Theoretical Criminology 2022, Vol. 26(I) 3-22 Surveillance arbitration in the @TheAuthor(s)2020 era of digital policing Article reuseguielnes sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1 177/ 1362480620967020 journals.sagepub.com/home/tcr Peter Fussey ŽSAGE University of Essex, UK Ajay Sandhu Ryerson University, Canada Abstract This article analyses adoptions of innovative technology into police surveillance activities. Extending the nascent body of empirical research on digital policing, the article draws on qualitative interview data of operational police uses of advanced surveillance technologies. Separate illustrative examples are drawn from social media intelligence gathering, digital forensics and covert online child sexual exploitation investigations. Here, surveillance governance mechanisms, often authored in the 'pre-digital' era, are deemed ill-fitting to the possibilities brought by new technologies. This generates new spaces of interpretation, where regulatory frameworks become renegotiated and reinterpreted, a process defined here as 'surveillance arbitration'. These deliberations are resolved in myriad ways, including perceived licence for extended surveillance and, conversely, more cautious approaches motivated by perceived exposure to regulatory sanction. Keywords Governance, policing, regulation, surveillance, technology Introduction Paralleling their growing presence in contemporary society, digital surveillance tech- nologies increasingly occupy a central role in police practice. Innovations receiving par- ticular public attention include advances in predictive policing, enhanced online Corresponding author: Peter Fussey, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, C04 3SQ, UK. Email: pfussey@essex.ac.uk