Selling the Future of Policing: Corporate Claimsmaking and the Social Construction of Advanced Technologies in Law Enforcement
Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Existing literature on advanced policing technologies has largely examined their effectiveness, ethical implications, and post-implementation consequences. At the same time, comparatively less attention has been given to how these technologies come to be understood as necessary and legitimate solutions to problems in the first place. Drawing on a social constructionist framework, this study used qualitative content and thematic analysis of 165 public-facing documents from PredPol (Geolitica), Veritone, and Axon to examine this process. The findings showed that companies constructed policing as strained by organizational, technological, and legitimacy challenges while positioning advanced technologies as necessary solutions. Companies further constructed these technologies as supportive of officers, managed concerns surrounding their risks, and presented technological adoption as central to policing’s future. Overall, the study demonstrates that private technology companies function as influential claimsmakers that shape understandings of both policing problems, and their appropriate solutions
Author: Medeiros, Briana
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7210374627