Expanded Police Surveillance Will Get Us "Broken Windows" on Steroids

Across the United States, cities are spending a larger share of the money at their disposal buying and deploying surveillance technology. From cameras to A.I.–enhanced microphones, and from automated license plate readers to drones and robots, cities are responding to cries for more safety with security theater. This might lead to a few extra arrests, but it does little to create sustainable safety. Forcing residents in neighborhoods with higher crime rates to live under constant, all-seeing digital scrutiny will neither make people safer from the systematic harms they face, including police violence, nor patch up their rocky relationship with the police who are sworn to protect and serve them. From at least the advent of fingerprint analysis, police work has trended to rely more on technology and less on community involvement--a shift that has signaled a decreasing reliance on witnesses and people who know community residents well.