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Technology and Police Legitimacy

Aston, Elizabeth; Wells, Helen; Bradford, Ben; O'Neill, Megan

Authors

Helen Wells

Ben Bradford

Megan O'Neill



Contributors

Antoinette Verhage
Editor

Marleen Easton
Editor

Sofie De Kimpe
Editor

Abstract

Through a consideration of the use of mobile devices by the police and the public, this chapter explores some of the potential issues raised by the incorporation of technology. What internal challenges should be considered for police organisations? What impact may the expansion of technologically mediated interactions have on public perceptions of police legitimacy? Whilst there is a large volume of work linking procedural justice in face-to-face interactions to legitimacy, we know little about how this operates online. Employing the concept of the ‘abstract police’ (Terpstra et al., The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 92(4), 339–359, 2019), we consider the potential impact of technology on legitimacy both internally within police organisations and externally between the police and the public. We consider organisational justice and conceptualise legitimacy as dialogic and relational (Bottoms & Tankebe, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 102, 119–170, 2012).

Citation

Aston, E., Wells, H., Bradford, B., & O'Neill, M. (2022). Technology and Police Legitimacy. In A. Verhage, M. Easton, & S. De Kimpe (Eds.), Policing in Smart Societies (43-68). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83685-6_4

Online Publication Date Jan 1, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Jan 27, 2022
Publicly Available Date Jan 2, 2024
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Pages 43-68
Series Title Palgrave's Critical Policing Studies
Series ISSN 2730-5368
Book Title Policing in Smart Societies
Chapter Number 4
ISBN 978-3-030-83684-9
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83685-6_4
Keywords technology, police legitimacy, abstract police
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2838234