Sarah Brayne on Stratified Surveillance: Policing in the Age of Big Data:

“In the wake of 9/11, federal agencies provided considerable funding to state and local law enforcement agencies to collect, analyze, share and deploy a wide range of new data. Increasingly, local law enforcement agencies recognized these data could be useful for their own quotidian surveillance. The rise of “big data” raises a host of sociological questions about the implications for surveillance and inequality. In her research, Sarah analyzes the use of big data within the Los Angeles Police Department to address two key research questions: 1) How does the adoption of big data analytics transform police surveillance? 2) What are the implications of new surveillance practices for social inequalities.”

About Databites

Data & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.