“A network of collaborative intelligence”: The platformization of community algorithmic surveillance

Resumen

This paper explores how two different startups, Flock Safety in the United States and Gabriel in Brazil, are directly involving communities in the infrastructuring of algorithmic surveillance. Both companies employ a platform for surveillance-as-a-service that allows law enforcement and community members to collaborate in establishing an ‘intelligent’ surveillance network in neighborhoods. Within the literature, the platformization of surveillance has mainly been interrogated across two levels: on one hand, scholars have discussed how platform logics continue to penetrate police work, while others have observed how platforms come with built-in logics of surveillance that affect everyday usage. The paper contributes to critical data studies with an empirical exploration of community participation in the platformization of algorithmic surveillance. In this process, not only does the reach and scope of surveillance expand, but platform logics reshape surveillance practices and renew power imbalances. While the rhetoric of community empowerment is pervasive throughout their marketing claims, these two surveillance platform businesses are directly integrating their data infrastructure with the surveillance state, diminishing the ability for communities to self-govern. This paper argues that the communities’ adoption of platform surveillance only fuels the capabilities of law enforcement to expand its access – but not full control over – algorithmic surveillance infrastructure and data. Communities themselves are restricted to the position of subscribers to a service, which does not allow them to fully govern or control how the platform is used.