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Exploring the ethical, organisational and technological challenges of crime mapping: a critical approach to urban safety technologies

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‘Technology won’t save us’—David Lyon.

Abstract

Technology is pervasive in current police practices, and has been for a long time. From CCTV to crime mapping, databases, biometrics, predictive analytics, open source intelligence, applications and a myriad of other technological solutions take centre stage in urban safety management. But before efficient use of these applications can be made, it is necessary to confront a series of challenges relating to the organizational structures that will be used to manage them, to their technical capacities and expectations, and to weigh up the positive and negative external factors at play at the intersection between technology, society and urban management. The paper contributes to this discussion by looking into the dynamics that drive technological uptake in the field of urban safety, the different theories underpinning the relationship between crime and space, and the history and technological characteristics of Geographic Information Systems to later present specific case studies and practical examples of crime mapping systems. Finally, addressing matters related to organisational constraints, technological possibilities and societal impact from a critical point of view, the paper lays out guidelines to ensure that using technology to manage urban safety does not result in increased victimisation, inequalities or inefficiency. Taking one of the longest established technology used in police practice, crime mapping, and using a multidisciplinary, critical approach to escape technological solutionism and bridge the gap between the academic literature (STS, urban sociology, environmental criminology) and policy needs and recommendations, this paper sends a cautionary tale to those hoping that technology alone can solve complex urban and social problems.

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Notes

  1. Ateneo Naider: De la ciudad sostenible a la smart city. No perder la perspectiva http://www.ateneonaider.com/blog/manu-fernandez/de-la-ciudad-sostenible-la-smart-city-no-perder-la-perspectiva.

  2. The importance of the geographical and situational component has been caputred, for instance, by Crime Prevention Through Enviromental Design (CPTED), an international and multi-disciplinary collection of design principles for the built environment, both indoors and outdoors to prevent crime and increase security.

  3. Bullen (in Chainey and Tompson 2008) describes a case where georeferencing allowed practitioners to identify one day in the week, Wednesday, where crime went up in an area that a priori did not have any of the characteristisc or elements that made it a conflictive enclave. The availability of complex data on the surronding areas revealed that this specific spot was located between an area with serious drug problems and the centre of the city, where methadone was distributed... on Wednesdays. While a simple quantitative analysis had failed to identify the problemshare, linking crime data to Health and socio-economic data allowed for a relevant diagnosis.

  4. To consult other organizations, universities, and companies that develop innovations in the geo-reference field of crime, see Vann and Garson (2001).

  5. John Eterno and Eli Silverman, former criminologists of the New York Police Department, have been reporting the statistics of manipulation in the NYPD. They have collected documents, analysisis and case studies to prove that this practice exists and published it in The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation (2012: CRC Press). A truthful representation of this complex institutional reorgatization involved in the adoption of CompStat can also be found in Season 3 of the TV series “The Wire” broadcasted by the North American channel HBO between 2002 and 2008.

  6. This extreme has also generated an intense academic debate, which highlights that the cities that did not implement Giuliani-like strategies during this period also experimented significant reductions in their crime rates, pointing to the need to look at other related phenomena such as the lowering rates of drug use (and therefore, the success of prevention programs and strategies developed during the 1980s) or demographic changes (see Harcourt 2001).

  7. For more information, see http://www.gis.chicagopolice.org.

  8. This “public” use of crime maps (open data) is rising and shows its own complexities (linked to fundamental rights, such as privacy, the presumption of innocence, rehabilitation, etc.) which fall beyond the scope of this text.

  9. A figure above many systems that do not usually exceed 60% of correct data. For more information about this case, see Gilmour and Barclay (2008).

  10. During the Summer of 2001, various populations in northern England like Oldham, Burnley, Bradford, and Wrexham witnessed generalised unrest led by youngsters of different ethnic groups and where right-wing parties were also involved.

  11. The six indicators were: rate of robberies in houses; rate of violent robberies in houses; index of poverty; unemployment rate; population with lower education; and percentage of population between ages of 15 and 24.

  12. This point should not be understood as a call for more data sharing, but for better, more responsable and anonymised data sharing to improve public outcomes. Data sharing between public agencies, and between public and private agencies, has its own ethical and legal challenges, and while getting into these would be outside of the scope of this paper, the author would like to stress the need for consent, accountability, purpose limitation and compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Any attempt to use personal data in the ways described above would most probably require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to address these ethical and legal aspects.

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Correspondence to Gemma Galdon Clavell.

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Galdon Clavell, G. Exploring the ethical, organisational and technological challenges of crime mapping: a critical approach to urban safety technologies. Ethics Inf Technol 20, 265–277 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9477-1

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