Big data vs. community policing

This article summarizes a police conference keynote presentation focused on the impact of austerity and big data on more traditional forms of community policing in Australia and elsewhere. Professor Rogers observes that, in the ongoing demand to do more with less, “it’s no surprise that police, as with many other public agencies, turn to technology in order to assist them in this struggle.” He notes that social and organizational change are inevitable, but “we must be careful that in rushing to seek a technological answer to the problems of modern policing, we do not throw out the ‘community support baby’ with the bathwater.”