Police Surveillance Machines: A Curt History

Elizabeth Joh

            The twelvemonth 2015 witnessed a dramatic ascent inward demands for constabulary surveillance machines.  After a number of widely shared incidents of constabulary violence against often unarmed civilians, populace protests in addition to media attending led to calls for the adoption of surveillance machines past times the police.  Advocates of surveillance machines, including the identify unit of measurement of Michael Brown, argued that these technologies would increment transparency in addition to accountability surrounding constabulary interactions alongside civilians past times collecting in addition to preserving information for populace review.  Indeed, the most contentious police-civilian interactions often came downward to populace disputes equally to the alleged threat posed past times the civilian, versus the propriety of the constabulary response. Surveillance machines promised a technological layer of accountability past times rendering these hidden interactions public. Now that they are existence implemented, however, the political economic scheme of constabulary technologies raises novel concerns most concentrated private power, consumer platform protection, in addition to adequate regulation of information inward the futurity of policing.

            The construction of American policing--essentially local--dictated how the adoption of surveillance machines would unfold.  In 2015, the federal authorities offered millions inward grant funding for local agencies to buy their ain surveillance machines.  These federal grants required that constabulary agencies address noun concerns--including “privacy considerations” --in their grant funding, although without detailed specifications. That funding, along alongside national attending to the problem, spurred constabulary agencies across the province to adopt surveillance machine airplane pilot projects.  Facing considerable populace pressure, constabulary chiefs to a greater extent than or less the province were understandably eager to demonstrate their willingness to engage inward reforms alongside a tangible in addition to technological solution. Hence, most large agencies surveyed inward 2016 stated they intended to or already had adopted a surveillance machine program.

            While speedy adoption of these machines demonstrated a visible commitment to reform, it unfolded inward a trend that gives private corporate players pregnant powerfulness over law enforcement data, and, past times extension, the rattling nature of policing. In essence, populace constabulary agencies are customers inward highly concentrated engineering scientific discipline markets. In the illustration of surveillance machines, constabulary agencies accept faced express options from vendors, possessed footling guidance most desirable pattern features to request, in addition to few incentives to constitute rules or guidelines most their purpose prior to purchase. With surveillance machines, procurement was itself policymaking for a democratically accountable institution.

            First, the surveillance machine marketplace offered also footling consumer alternative to constabulary agencies.  One company, Axon, is the dominant marketplace player.  Axon has relied on long established relationships alongside most of the country’s 18,000 constabulary agencies it had secured past times acting equally the primary vendor of electronic strength compliance instruments.  Those established commercial relationships reduced contest from smaller surveillance machine companies, in addition to favored Axon. Investigative journalists, for instance, uncovered several instances of Axon encouraging constabulary agencies to motility into into no-bid contracts.

            Second, because constabulary agencies are consumers, the pattern specifications of the surveillance machines they purpose are dictated by the vendor.  In surveillance products, accountability in addition to privacy are often matters of design.  Whether, for example, a surveillance machine tin laissez passer on notice tape surreptitiously or non is a thing of production design.  So also is the alternative equally to whether the somebody using the surveillance machine possesses the ability--and therefore the discretion--to plough it on or off.  The same is truthful of futurity applications for surveillance machines, such equally facial recognition technology. When the marketplace is dominated past times i company, customers--in this illustration constabulary agencies--have footling alternative in addition to input into the in conclusion production procured.

            Third, inward the illustration of surveillance machines, adoption came alongside little idea or deliberation regarding rulemaking over their use.  Police agencies purchased them to demonstrate their commitment to reform, but these machines lone would never guarantee constabulary accountability.  Their service to democratic policing would move equally expert or equally bad equally the rules governing them.  In the rush for federal funding, some agencies adopted rules, but a swell many were irksome to adopt clear guidelines, in addition to some accept soundless failed to produce so. The rush to adopt surveillance machines without uniform or consistent adoption of best practices has left their hope of accountability in addition to transparency ill-served.  While private means rules vary considerably, inward most states, the information generated past times constabulary surveillance machines are non presumptive populace records.  H5N1 non-exhaustive listing of other issues that either vary widely or accept been scarcely addressed include: information purpose in addition to access rules, inclusion of biometric identification tools, in addition to recording of activity protected past times the First Amendment.

            Furthermore, because both advocates in addition to the constabulary characterized surveillance machines equally a reply to the specific job of tearing police-civilian encounters, the surveillance machine experience obscured the nature of the engineering scientific discipline itself.  Police agencies were purchasing in addition to investing inward a platform, non simply private machines.  For example, inward Apr 2017, Axon offered every constabulary means a costless twelvemonth of surveillance machines for their officers; afterwards a year, whatsoever dissatisfied means could homecoming the machines, no questions asked. That offering lay bare the vendor’s aims.  Few profits arise from private surveillance machines. Rather, existent profits prevarication inward constabulary means subscriptions to the information platform.  This includes non simply cloud information storage, but also the software management systems that let agencies to permit secure access, to tag metadata, in addition to for services similar redaction in addition to transcription.  The companionship that dominates 3 quarters of the marketplace is non inward the surveillance machine business; it is inward the constabulary platform business. And Axon expects to innovate automated study writing in addition to facial recognition engineering scientific discipline through its platform to its constabulary customers inward the future.

            An Apple-like platform to address a host of constabulary engineering scientific discipline needs is a hard offering to refuse.   Most constabulary departments are ill-equipped to address engineering scientific discipline matters internally, in addition to few accept the capability to shop securely the petabytes of information generated past times their officers’ surveillance machines. As implemented currently, Axon’s platform dominates.

            As that platform develops inward sophistication, nosotros are probable to regard the increasingly uneven in addition to invisible burdens of surveillance on the public.  To move poor, black, in addition to chocolate-brown has historically meant existence subjected to heightened constabulary surveillance.  Surveillance machines both magnify in addition to shroud that power.  When applied to surveillance machines, artificial intelligence applied to large information tin laissez passer on notice assist the constabulary generate inferences. H5N1 facial recognition arrangement coupled alongside geofencing, for example, tin laissez passer on notice alarm the constabulary to people who accept left their neighborhoods in addition to gibe a suspicious profile hitting list.

            Overenforcement is also a probable unanticipated lawsuit of widespread surveillance machine adoption. This tin laissez passer on notice come about inward 2 ways. Surveillance machines equipped alongside artificial intelligence powerfulness move used to automate enforcement of certainly offenses. Alternatively, officers may experience nudged to enforce the law to a greater extent than oft alongside a surveillance machine watching their ain work.  All of this information is probable to move generated inward places where human officers accept historically had a heavy presence.

            Police surveillance machines are also a thing of occupation privacy for constabulary officers, who powerfulness alter their direct inward the presence of surveillance.  This accounts for some of the early on in addition to song resistance to surveillance machine adoption past times some constabulary unions.  The lack of clarity most purpose rules farther increased tensions betwixt constabulary management in addition to labor most worker privacy. Some of this resistance has faded, however, equally to a greater extent than officers accept grown to sympathise that surveillance machines are useful equally prove gathering tools in addition to equally countermeasures against accusations of constabulary misconduct. 

            These features of our experience alongside surveillance machine adoption accept led to many foreseeable consequences that concord lessons most surveillance engineering scientific discipline markets, private power, in addition to constabulary reform.  However, these questions of private power, constabulary agencies equally consumers, surveillance platforms, in addition to express populace access in addition to input are non express to this experience.  Many novel constabulary technologies volition arise inward the same way. If nosotros are to effectively purpose technologies to convey most a to a greater extent than simply law enforcement system, nosotros must pattern constabulary systems of procurement in addition to purpose inward a trend that emphasizes democratic, non private, control.  Our experience alongside constabulary trunk cameras provides us alongside a cautionary tale.

            Elizabeth Joh is Professor of Law at U.C. Davis School of Law. You tin laissez passer on notice follow her on Twitter at @elizabeth_joh.