Digital surveillance and dilemmas in police practice: Balancing technological opportunities and citizens’ integrity

The increased digitalisation of society and recent developments in AI is laying the ground for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude we have not seen before.

Surveillance can be conducted by several different actors in society - this project focuses on the Swedish police currently using a large ensemble of surveillance technologies.

Earlier this year, significant legislative changes governing the police authorities use of digital surveillance were enacted.

These changes mean that the police now have been given an extended mandate to use digital surveillance as part of their professional practice, which places demands on balanced decisions and informed responsibility.

On the one hand, the police have an interest to use digital surveillance to increase efficiency and security in society; on the other hand, the police must balance their interests with citizen’s so called integrity-interests and right to privacy.

The aim of this project is to investigate how the extended mandate to use digital surveillance as part of the police practice unfolds and fosters legitimacy challenges within the Swedish police authority and for the individual police officers in their everyday work practice.

Following questions will be focused: 1) What kind of tensions does the extended mandate and use of digital surveillance foster in police officers´ work practice? 2) How do police officers organize their surveillance practices when they set out to tackle these tensions?

Theoretically, we draw on practice theory and Lessig´s four modalities of regulation and link this to the research fields of discretion, surveillance and privacy.

The project is designed as a qualitative study where the Swedish police is the main case and other related authorities will also be included.