Spiller, K. and L'Hoiry, X.D. orcid.org/0000-0001-9138-7666 (2019) Watch groups, surveillance and doing it for themselves. Surveillance and Society, 17 (3/4). pp. 288-304. ISSN 1477-7487
Abstract
This paper focuses on surveillant relations between citizens and police. We consider how online platforms enable the public to support the task of policing, as well as empowering the public to work without and beyond the police. While community-supported policing interventions are not new, more recently mobile and accessible technologies have promoted and enabled a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture towards policing amongst the public. The paper examines watch groups or those who task themselves with monitoring suspicious or actual behaviours. We consider two empirical examples: first, a community alert group mediated through social media. Second, a group of businesses that circulate, via a website, CCTV images of (alleged) wrongdoing in their premises. Drawing on David Garland’s (1996) work on responsibilisation, we situate the growth of these types of responsibilised groups within the contemporary economic and political climate of crime control in the UK. We argue that citizens are establishing new surveillant relations that are pushing policing in new and evolving directions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The author(s), 2019. Licensed to the Surveillance Studies Network under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Visibility; Policing; Pickpocket Watch; Townbury Alert; Watch Groups; DIY Policing |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2018 13:57 |
Last Modified: | 31 Oct 2019 17:02 |
Published Version: | https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveilla... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Surveillance Studies Network |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.24908/ss.v17i3/4.8637 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:138670 |
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