NordForsk Digitalisation of the Public Sector - Critical Understanding of Predictive Policing

Lead Research Organisation: University of St Andrews
Department Name: Geography and Sustainable Development

Abstract

The Nordic-Baltic countries and the UK are not only considered leaders in the digitalization of the public sector, but they have also established long-term cooperation in regards to law enforcement. At the same time, law enforcement constitutes an important institution of the public sector that is currently going through a gradual transformation by applying digital strategies to improve its efficiency and effectiveness to predict events and automate work in crime deduction in several countries. The use of data driven innovations in police work has raised considerable attention in policy, media, legal, and academic debates. However, these debates are largely speculative, focusing on the potentials of new forms of police work. We actually know very little about how big data is adopted and adapted in law enforcement activities and to what consequence. Moreover, the proliferation of data analytics brings into question how citizens' rights are being protected as what counts as 'safety' or 'policing' is being fundamentally transformed. The aim of Critical Understanding of Predictive Policing is to investigate how institutional and social values, digital affordances, and organizational politics are conceived and embedded in data-driven police innovations, as well as experienced and practiced by police officers and developers of digital police infrastructure in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and the UK. The CUPP project will apply an interdisciplinary framework at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Critical Criminology, and Critical Big Data Studies to identify and explore the related effects and impact of data driven police technologies on society and end-users. CUPP will apply a three-phase methodological approach consisting of recent historiography, fieldwork and interviews, and collaborative interventionist analysis. The research team will generate vital new insights about how law enforcement is conceived and practiced in the digitalized state, as well as how public participation and scrutiny is ensured in the procurement, implementation and use of digital infrastructures. Additionally, the research will shed light on what values and politics are inscribed within digital solutions.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Understanding Nordic Digital Order: Digitalisation of Policing in the Nordics, Activism, and Surveillance Oversight
Amount € 415,500 (EUR)
Organisation Kone Foundation (Finland) 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Finland
Start 09/2023 
End 08/2027
 
Description Unpacking the contention between openness and security in the Nordic region: Digital public surveillance practices at three state borders
Amount € 990,000 (EUR)
Organisation Society of Swedish Literature in Finland 
Sector Learned Society
Country Finland
Start 03/2022 
End 02/2025
 
Title Common methodological/conceptual framework 
Description The members of the CUPP project jointly developed a common methodological and conceptual document that acts as a toolkit for the whole consortium. This document will provide common theoretical concepts and methodological coherence amongst the work packages. The team decided to maintain the openness of the document and feed it with updates throughout the project duration. The document aims to inform other scientific contributions (such as peer-reviewed articles, the introductory chapter of the common edited volume) produced by CUPP members. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The joint conceptual and methodological framework constitutes a dynamic document that will be updated throughout the project's duration and will be used to inform different kind of publications, conference presentations, as well as future funding applications. The document has already been used as a basis for discussing and comparing methodological strategies during the consortium meetings. A version of the document will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal as a collective publication. The methodological part of the framework has already inspired a research consortium application that several CUPP members also participate and it has been submitted to CHANSE. 
 
Description Algorithmic governance and cultures of policing 
Organisation Oslo Metropolitan University
Country Norway 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I am part in the project financed by the Research Council of Norway. It make it possible to extend the empirical data collection relevant to the CUPP project. Project number: 313626, Project duration: 01.04.2021 - 31.03.2024 This project can be termed a sister project to CUPP.
Collaborator Contribution The collaborators in this project, outside the Norwegian WP, contribute with comparative Perspectives from India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa.
Impact Work shops presenting papers, they are multi-disciplinary, collaborations with anthropologists, sociologists and criminologists.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration between the ITU team and the Digital Nordic Borders project (DiNoBord) 
Organisation University of Gothenburg
Country Sweden 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution CUPP and DiNoBord share knowledge and personell. Members of the CUPP project also participate in DiNoBord. This contributes to methodological and conceptual exchange between the two projects as well as shared fieldwork. This enables research partners to access otherwise non-accessible empirical sites through a broader research collaboration.
Collaborator Contribution This collaboration contributes with research synergies between the two projects. Predictive policing and digital borders share common empirical and epistemological/ontological grounds which enables collaborative writing projects between partners from both projects.
Impact Writing projects Submitted research proposals (VR in Sweden, Velux in Denmark)
Start Year 2022
 
Description Collaboration between the ITU team and the coUNter Digital pOlicing (UNDO) project 
Organisation University of Tampere
Country Finland 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The newly funded (by the Finnish KONE foundation) project UNDO employs a combination of research and artistic inquiry to critically investigate and relay the role and transformation of the digitalization of the police in three Nordic countries, and to mobilize for the protection of civil rights in the age of Big Data. Members of CUPP who also participate in UNDO (Galis, Karlsson) will collaborate with members of the UNDO project on a documentary and a digital application related to digital policing.
Collaborator Contribution Members of CUPP and UNDO will collaborate on: A documentary film that focuses on how the digitalization of the police came into being in three Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden), showcasing how digital policing interacts and limits everyday life. Concretely, the film follows individuals whose datafied and race profiled bodies moves across borders. A counter-surveillance software application, bundled in a smartphone app which will be freely available and open source, for object detection. This digital counter-surveillance application will recognize surveillance mechanisms in three Nordic cities (Copenhagen, Helsinki, Malmö) to alert targeted social groups.
Impact The collaboration was initiated recently.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Collaboration on the production of a Special Issue in Information, Communication & Society 
Organisation Bielefeld University
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Two members of the CUPP project, Helene O. I. Gundhus (University of Oslo) and Vasilis Galis (IT University of Copenhagen) are collaborating with a prominent scholar within the field of critical studies of predictive policing, Dr. Simon Egbert who has been the author of several influential relevant publications, to produce an international publication. The team is organizing an international workshop in Copenhagen, 27-28 April 2023, under the title The Role of Data Integration and Analysis Platforms in Contemporary Society. 11 prominent scholars in the fields of digitilization, law enforcement and predictive policing will participate.
Collaborator Contribution Gundhus and Galis are collaborating with Egbert to develop a Special Issue for Special Issue in Information, Communication & Society on the topic of platformization in contemporary society. To do this, ITU will host an international workshop on the topic on April 27-28, 2023.
Impact Gundhus, Galis, and Egbert have conducted the preliminary work and meetings for commencing the special issue, which aims to attract scholars working on predictive policing stemming from different disciplines and methodological traditions. The publication is aimed to be multi-disciplinary in this way.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Collaboration with local stakeholders in all six constituencies under the supervision of PROSA 
Organisation IT University of Copenhagen
Country Denmark 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution CUPP will use the industrial' partner's (PROSA) various public engagements as a platform for creating public debate and gather civil society around the issues addressed in this project as well as participating in the composition of an ideas catalogue. PROSA, a trade union and interest organization for IT professionals, with 16.000 members nationwide and actively engaged in IT political debates regarding mass surveillance, civil rights and predictive analytics, acquires expertise in organizing events, workshops, and public meetings with civil society about technical implications of legislation and political implications of new technologies. The CUPP project will organize a series of citizen seminars in all six constituencies supervised by the PROSA members. The first public event, organized by PROSA and ITU, took place in Copenhagen on December 14 and gathered researchers, software providers, representatives of the police, and civil rights groups for talks and joint discussions about the near and present future in relation to digitalised law enforcement. https://cuppresearch.info/article/public-seminar-big-data-and-the-police-1
Collaborator Contribution PROSA uses their various public engagements as a platform for creating public debate and gather civil society around the issues addressed in this project as well as participating in the composition of an ideas catalogue across the work packages and the six countries. PROSA, which co-leads WP8, will assist all partners in organizing citizen meetings in the involved countries. PROSA and each partner will outline in individual meetings the character and the content of the citizen seminars.
Impact The PROSA team will contribute to the project by organizing events, workshops, and public meetings with civil society about technical implications of legislation and political implications of policing technologies. The consortium envisages to build on continuous stakeholder and end-user input and feedback to develop an ideas catalogue on ways of scrutinizing and making accountable the law enforcement and the conditions for democratic involvement in a digitalized public sector, as a practice-oriented output of this research-based endeavor. Through communication in academic fora that go beyond the European focus the project partners will contribute to the broader international debate on digitalization in the public sector and democratic governance of services provided by these new technological tools. The methodology followed by PROSA to conduct these events has already been presented as part of the project's interventionist approach during the kick-off meeting for all Nordforsk projects in February 2021 as well as during the first CUPP public event in December 2021 and conference participations by project members.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with the Södertörn University within the project "Automating Welfare in the Baltic Sea Region" 
Organisation Södertörn University
Country Sweden 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This project investigates the implementation of automated decision-making in the welfare sector in the Baltic Sea region being one of the first to link automation to questions of shrinking trust, decline in civic participation and in extension challenges for democracy. Data-based infrastructures for public administration are shaping not only welfare provision, but also state-citizen relations and open up questions of ethics and accountability, human agency in relation to complex socio-technical systems as well as biases and inequalities. AUTO-WELF is premised on three major developments: 1) a shift towards digitalisation of society 2) major changes in the organisation of the welfare state 3) shrinking trust in democracy. It foregrounds the perspective of citizens both in terms of the introduction process and its democratic implications.
Collaborator Contribution This project investigates the implementation of automated decision-making in the welfare sector in the Baltic Sea region being one of the first to link automation to questions of shrinking trust, decline in civic participation and in extension challenges for democracy. Data-based infrastructures for public administration are shaping not only welfare provision, but also state-citizen relations and open up questions of ethics and accountability, human agency in relation to complex socio-technical systems as well as biases and inequalities. AUTO-WELF is premised on three major developments: 1) a shift towards digitalisation of society 2) major changes in the organisation of the welfare state 3) shrinking trust in democracy. It foregrounds the perspective of citizens both in terms of the introduction process and its democratic implications.
Impact Joint article planned on the predictive policing, based on the combination of survey and qualitative data and using the storytelling / scenario methods.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with the STS-MIGTEC network 
Organisation University of Lisbon
Country Portugal 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The CUPP project has been collaborating with the STS-MIGTEC network on both research, network, and educational activities.
Collaborator Contribution The IT University of Copenhagen has been an active participant in the collaboration with the STS-MIGTEC network. ITU has participated in the submission of a COST action (October 2021), series of seminars and research ideas exchange workshops during 2021, and will participate in a PhD workshop in 2022.
Impact The nature of the network is multi-disciplinary at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and critical migration, security and border studies. Therefore, the different activities and collaborations emerging from the involvement of CUPP with the STS-MIGTEC also are multi-disciplinary. So far, ITU as a PI for CUPP has been involved in a COST action, a special issue editorial and organization of a PhD workshop.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Dissemination of research results 
Organisation Ada Lovelace Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution This collaboration involves the dissemination of research findings through publishing in the websites' blog.
Collaborator Contribution They have shown interest in our research and expressed their wish to collaborate further, including by building adding us to their expanding network of academic and research institutions working in the area of digitalisation.
Impact yes, this is a multidisciplinary collaboration and it brings together law, social sciences and science and technology studies.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Engagement in the Technology Assessment network in Central and Eastern Europe 
Organisation Institute of Technology Assessment
Country Austria 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Information exchange on technology assessment activities in Latvia. Providing feedback and contribution to the manuscript "TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: STATUS QUO AND PROSPECTS 2022" (https://epub.oeaw.ac.at/ita/ita-manuscript/ITA_22_01.pdf).
Collaborator Contribution Information exchange on technology assessment activities in Central and Eastern Europe.
Impact Invitation to give a presentation at the online conference "Technology assessment in Central and Eastren Europe" to be held on 21 March 2022 (disciplines covered include sociology, political science, economics, engineering, etc.). Inclusion in the weekly updates from the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) database and invitations to EPTA-related events (https://eptanetwork.org/).
Start Year 2021
 
Description Partnership with the Center for Digital Welfare (IT University of Copenhagen) 
Organisation IT University of Copenhagen
Country Denmark 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The CUPP project contributes to the unique research work of the Center for Digital Welfare with knowledge dissemination, network creating, and stakeholder interaction in a sensitive field of the welfare state: law enforcement.
Collaborator Contribution Members of the CUPP project contribute knowledge and expertise in public digitization, and in particular the digitization and datafication of the police, in the Center.
Impact The Center for Digital Welfare investigates a number of issues related to digitization in the public sector and places great emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in areas such as design, organizations and everyday life, and computer science. Apart from CUPP, the Center hosts another Nordforsk funded project - Infrastructures for Partially Digital Citizens: Supporting informal welfare work in the digitized state - creating synergies and collaborations between researchers in similar fieldworks and connecting international projects.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Citizen seminars 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact CUPP forms a foundation for the mutual communication of insights for and from the public through citizen seminars and informs and enriches the overall public debate in the involved countries and in wider academic and non-academic circles.we have allocated resources for a series of citizen seminars in all six constituencies supervised by the PROSA members that will act as a platform for creating public debate and gather civil society around the issues addressed in this project as well as participating in the composition of an ideas catalogue.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022
 
Description Datadrevet politi Internal seminar for stakeholders: Politiets IT-senter, 16.1.2023, Helene Gundhus and Christin Wathne 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was internal seminar for stakeholders. We presented and discussed preliminary findings at Politiets IT-senter, 16.1.2023, Helene Gundhus and Christin Wathne
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Expert interview for elaboration of master thesis 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Expert interview (online, 30 June 2021) given to a master student at TalTech (Tim Wei Shi Vrieling "Using Explanations to Foster Values: Expert Opinions on the Potential of Broad Explainability to Foster Different Values in the Context of Predictive Policing") in direct relation to the CUPP project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://digikogu.taltech.ee/et/Download/a335e00e-6400-4b9f-80a2-738f0e53f78c
 
Description FFI/Ministry of Justice project: presentation CUPP; 14 September, 2021 Helene Gundhus & Pernille Skjevrak Erichsen 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Pernille Erichsen Skjevrak and I was invited to present the CUPP-project for a working group led by Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt, funded by Ministry of Justice, developing the report 'Teknologiutviklingens betydning for politiet, PST og Den høyere påtalemyndighet'. The presentation was part of the reports FFI-RAPPORT 21/02532 knowledge base.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Online blog article, Nordic Research Council for Criminology, 18.1.2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This blog is dissemination from participating in Nordic Research Council for Criminology, May, 2022, Iceland
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.nsfk.org/blog/discretion-and-net-widening-early-intervention-and-forecasting-youth-crime...
 
Description Panel debate seminar: Intelligence Led Policing: What is New / Old, What We Know / Don't? 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Open debate on the implications of a more digitalised police on November 28, 2022. Hosted by the Velux funded project Welfare after Digitalization (WaD).

Intelligence Led Policing (ILP) is a law enforcement model that aims to inform police-work related decision making with intelligence analysis and to enable a shift from reactive to proactive policing. ILP ranges from the tactical level all the way to the strategic level of selecting which crimes the police should focus their efforts to. At the same time, the pre-emptive nature of digitalization in law enforcement internationally is affecting the realities of citizens by keeping tabs on the production of new forms of social inequalities, social justice and potentially (re)shaping the notion of safety.

Bringing together police officers, interest organizations, NGOs, researchers and citizens, this panel forms a meeting place for exchange of insights and opinions regarding the disparate intentions and varied effects of digitalizing and ILPizing the Danish police. The goal is to better understand what law enforcement has become now, after the digitalization.

During the panel, we will also draw attention to the social and practical impact of pre-emptive policing motivated by states of exception (e.g., terrorist attacks, a pandemic, international crises).

We aim to discuss about what values and politics have been historically inscribed within the law enforcement models? How are institutional values and practices implemented in police forces as ILP and/or Big Data policing becomes the new trend for the protection and prosecution of citizens?

At the same time, the digitalization of the police also involves private businesses. This differs from traditional forms of welfare and public goods as an important element is to delegate responsibility to new actors, including controversial corporations. This tendency raises questions about ownership, both with respect to the provided expertise or technical infrastructure as well as in relation to the data that is created, transported, and stored. What happens when the responsibility for digitalizing critical police infrastructure is outsourced?

Participants:
Anja Møller Pedersen, Privacy and Data Protection researcher in the Danish Institute of Human Rights,
Chris Jones, Executive Director in Statewatch,
Erik Modin, Commissioner of Police with the National Unit for Special Crime,
Marc Johansson, former police officer from Denmark, currently working in the Copenhagen Municipality,
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Head of Policy and Documentation at Amnesty International Denmark.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://cuppresearch.info/article/panel-on-intelligence-led-policing
 
Description Podcasts episode: Digitilization as an ideology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Vi taler om digitalisering som ideologi, borgernes data som råstof for staten, overvågning og kontrol og om et firma, der sidder midt i det hele, Palantir, ejet af amerikanske Peter Thiel med Vaselis Gallis, lektor ved ITU og PHD fellow Bjørn Karlsson.

Og så byder vi på en takketale fra en beskeden mand, Michael Kistrup, formand for tilsynet med efterretningstjenesterrne.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://soundcloud.com/cdw_itu_dk/klub-digital-velfaerd-5-digitalisering-som-ideologi
 
Description Politiets forebyggings- og digitaliseringsstrategier - hvilke føringer legger disse? 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on the workshop: Rettslige rammer for politiets forebygging på nett. Politihøgskolen: 29.8.22:
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation: Politiet styrt av algoritmebokser (Helene Gundhus), part of conference Norsk oppgjør med teknologigigantene, 15.3.2022, Oslo Kongresshall 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Included in the conference was table discussion and debates related to each theme, with 'writers' and this ended up in a report. It was also made a video of all the presentations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-05-24-rapport-norsk-oppgjor.pdf
 
Description Projects's Twitter account @CuppResearch 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public engagement
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022
URL https://twitter.com/CuppResearch
 
Description Public Seminar: Big Data and the Police 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact On December 14, the CUPP, the IT University of Copenhagen and PROSA (Danish Association of IT Professionals) organized an international event on Big Data and the police where stakeholders from civil society, big tech, the police, and academia participated. Researchers, software providers and civil rights groups were represented in the panel debate for talks and joint discussions about the near and present future in relation to digitalised law enforcement. Increasing datafication and digitalisation of our societies means increased access to personal data about citizens for police agencies. This can improve investigations, but also poses questions about privacy and data protection. The CUPP research project aims to move beyond speculation, engage civil society and to facilitate dialogue with central stakeholders.

The Agenda of the event included:
10:00-11:30 Fact vs. fiction in digitalised surveillance systems
In theory vast data amounts from lots of different sources can be a powerful weapon for the police in order to fight and even predict crime. But what are the real-life concerns technically as well ethically, when police agencies are facing large and heterogenous databases?
Speaker: Christian Damsgaard is Associate Professor at DTU and an expert in Cyber Security and Distributed Systems.

11:30-12:00 Introduction to the CUPP project

12:00-13:00 Lunch and networking

13:00-14:00 Talks: Pitfalls and Possibilities with Intelligence-led Policing

Courtney Bowman, Global Director of Privacy & Civil Liberties Engineering at Palantir Technologies
Christian Wiese Svanberg, former DPO of the National Police of Denmark during the procurement of Pol-Intel
Jesper Lund: IT Political Association

14:00-15:00 Debate

15:00-16:00 Coffee and networking

The event took place at the IT University of Copenhagen, Auditorium 2, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 Copenhagen S but there was a possibility of online streaming also.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://cuppresearch.info/article/public-seminar-big-data-and-the-police-1
 
Description Public debate "Welfare, traffic safety and privacy in the city" 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Open seminar "Welfare, traffic safety and privacy in the city" was held on June 13, 2022, hosted by the Baltic Studies Centre and the Institute of Legal Science, University of Latvia. The aim of the seminar was to stimulate a discussion on current road safety issues, the vision of different road users and existing, desirable and potential social, digital and infrastructure solutions to promote the well-being and security of citizens in the city, the protection of privacy and the responsible use of digital tools. The seminar was attended by 17 participants, engaging in a joint debate among the expert panel and audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://cuppresearch.info/article/public-debate-traffic-safety-and-privacy