Surveillance technologies and the crises of confidence in regulatory agencies

Technology plays an increasing role in policing and other aspects of the criminal justice process. This article will briefly outline the notion of a criminal justice ‘techno-fix’ as a potential attempt by criminal justice agencies to use technology as a source of legitimacy. It will then go on to explore a range of alternate scenarios focusing on the possibility that increasing use of technologies in general, and surveillance technologies in particular (both in terms of formal surveillance by criminal justice agencies and informal surveillance of these agencies by sections of the general public) may actually contribute to challenges to the legitimacy of criminal justice agencies, in part because of deeply embedded but unrealistic cultural assumptions about the capabilities of technology.