UC Berkeley study examines the politics of police technology adoption

Source Domain: ls.berkeley.edu

A recently published UC Berkeley study identifies the key factors that lead cities to adopt controversial new police technologies. In an era of rapid technological change and growing concerns over surveillance, these findings help clarify what drives these policy choices.

The study finds that agency size, rather than partisan leaning or local crime conditions, is the strongest predictor of technology adoption. It was conducted by recent UC Berkeley Sociology Ph.D alum Ángel Ross, now a Provostial Fellow at Stanford, alongside UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Alison Post and University of Mississippi Political Science Professor Ishana Ratan.

The paper, titled “The Politics of Police Technology Adoption: Agency Size and Uptake Among California Police Departments,” was published in the Journal of Urban Affairs. It examines the uptake of technologies such as license plate readers, body cameras, camera registries, Ring (camera) partnerships, drones, crime mapping software and security alerts in police departments around California.

“For the seven different technologies we examine, the only consistent predictor is the number of sworn officers. It was not partisanship, crime, or demographic composition that was most consistently associated with adoption, but agency size,” said Ross. “Larger departments, all else equal, were more likely to adopt these technologies.”

When beginning the study, Ross expected public opinion, partisanship, demographic composition and crime rates to shape cities’ decisions to adopt new police technologies. To an extent, these factors do matter, particularly in determining which tools are adopted, Ross said. For example, Democratic cities were more likely to adopt body-worn cameras.

However, the study finds that, for the most part, overall adoption is driven less by local politics and more by department size. Agencies with more sworn officers are significantly more likely to adopt new technologies. This pattern likely…

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