Race, Policing, and Technology

Abstract

I am a black man. So begins the essay, “Race, Policing, and Technology,” which makes an argument that may seem counter-intuitive, that may rile libertarians and progressives, and may even give pause to a few black folk. What this essay argues is that, if we truly care about making policing egalitarian and fair to everyone, then that may mean more policing, not less. It will mean harnessing technology, including surveillance technology, to help de-racialize policing. And it will mean redistributing privacy. The costs, especially to those who already enjoy a surfeit of privacy, may seem great. But even greater should be the possibility that technology can get us closer to race-free policing, and get us closer to the dream the founders could not have imagined, but was there all along, in the text, waiting to be born.

Keywords: Fourth Amendment, stop-and-frisks, surveillance, technology, critical race theory, race, black lives matter, policing, criminal justice