Using Big Data for Legal and Law Enforcement Decisions: Testing the New Tools

Abstract

This article aims to describe the potential applications of big data tools for legal and police decision-making, compare these to historical precedents in order to better understand what is new about these tools, and evaluate them by reference to technical, social and normative criteria. We hope that the concerns we raise will heighten awareness among developers and potential users prior to the ‘hardening’ of the socio-technical structures supporting big data.

Keywords: big data, legal, police, decision-making