A "smart" securitization of urban space? Predictive policing and the government of urban civic security

Embedded in everyday objects as much as in urban infrastructures, computer algorithms increasingly orchestrate city life through automated procedures. As raised by different authors, contemporary cities exist as an aggregate of bricks and mortar as much as an assemblage of software instructions. In the face of these developments, this project aims at examining one aspect of this “algorithmic urbanism”: the government of urban civic security by means of algorithmic calculations. In a context where the security of urban populations has become a major societal concern (as the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels have reminded us), data mining algorithms are often seen as a means to anticipate potential risks by “connecting the dots” of threat-related information. In this project, we look at the current development of “predictive policing”, software solutions that connect and analyze data from disparate sources, in order to target urban areas or individuals that could potentially present or be exposed to a risk. As evidenced by a growing number of companies developing their software solutions, as well as by an increasing number of US and European cities using or testing such software, a new urban security market seems to be on the rise. In the face of these recent developments, this project aims at exploring how security algorithms participate in the everyday securitization of urban spaces. By talking about their “participation” we want to stress that algorithms are always negotiated and contested entities, that never orchestrate city life in a completely stable, automated and autonomous fashion. In this regard, the project aims at problematizing the discourses, alliances and expertises that surround the contemporary practices of predictive policing in urban space.