CEPOL Research & Science Conference 2022 MRU, Vilnius

We are accustomed to see the police and policing as becoming increasingly technology-intensive, perhaps even technology-centred, -driven and -dependent. However, it appears pure science fiction to understand them as totally immersed by technology. Such an immersion or the sheer possibility for it seems like giving up the last hope. The attributes we attach to technical beings tend to extend the gap between technical objects and our fundamental nature as human beings. However, misunderstanding technical objects and their coming into being as well as failing to fully grasp the complexities that characterise our relation to our tools, machines, and technical ensembles have paved the way to the emergence of the prevailing understanding, where emphasis is either on freedom or alienation, mastery or slavery, the fulfilment of all human intentions or the arrival of the doomsday. I believe such conceptual shortcomings resonate with the way we see the police, especially the relation between the police and technology. As the eve for thinking machines and artificial intelligence comes ever closer, we should critically reflect the presumptions that play a constitutive role in thinking the issue. This article outlines the standard account and expands the perspective by introducing alternatives to it in the context of the police and policing.