Police Surveillance Technology and the Transformation of Public Space

Description

What does the rise of far-reaching, invasive police surveillance technologies with unprecedented capabilities mean for how we can act, speak, and relate to each other in public spaces? Join three research fellows from the Citizen Lab in discussing how their projects shed light on this increasingly critical issue at the intersection of race, surveillance, free expression, privacy, and power.

Bria Mathis will discuss her research into the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act in New York City, bringing additional perspective rooted in community organizing and civic engagement. Todd Whitney will discuss free expression and cultural implications arising from targeted surveillance of Black artists through police surveillance of rappers’ social media activities, for use as evidence in criminal investigations. Cynthia Khoo will discuss findings from her recent landmark report, co-authored with Citizen Lab fellow Kate Robertson and Yolanda Song at the International Human Rights Program, “To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada,” which analyzes the constitutional and human rights impacts of predictive policing and algorithmic surveillance.

This panel will be moderated by Dr. Anne-Marie Livingstone, a researcher and postdoctoral scholar within the R.F. Harney Program in Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies, at the Munk School. She is also the co-author of #MTLSansProfilage, a report on police racial profiling in Montreal.