Technology and Policing: Implications for Fairness and Legitimacy

In this article, Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the NPIA, and Emma Disley, DPhil student at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, argue that factual questions about the effectiveness of new technologies (such as DNA evidence, mobile identification technologies and computer databases) in detecting and preventing crime should not, and cannot, be separated from ethical and social questions surrounding the impact which these technologies might have upon civil liberties. This is due to the close inter-relationship between the effectiveness of the police and public perceptions of police legitimacy—which may potentially be damaged if new technologies are not deployed carefully. The authors argue that strong, transparent management and oversight of these technologies are essential, and suggest some factors to which a regime of governance should attend.