Smart City Initiatives in Policing: Case Studies from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Recent decades have seen a continued increase in urbanisation, which poses pressing challenges for urban management. Smart Cities are often put forward as a means to manage the challenges faced through using high volumes of data available to find long-term, context-suited solutions. Within a Smart Cities context, policing has been understudied, despite the challenges regarding safety coming from an increase in urbanisation. This research addresses the gap and studied Smart City policing initiatives at a micro level through deploying a qualitative multicase study approach. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as the theoretical and analytical framework, this research provides an understanding to how the development of Smart Cities influences policing activities, how the changes in policing and use of technology influence the development of Smart Cities, and how the Smart City policing initiatives are coordinated and governed. The findings show that, contrary to the characteristics of Smart Cities as presented in literature and the initiatives’ set-up, the initiatives were characterised by an uncoordinated, disconnected, and ad-hoc approach. The move to smartness was found to be hindered by three underlying causes. First, Digital Literacy gaps limited both the workforce’s ability to utilise data effectively and residents’ ability to participate in the initiatives, resulting in long-lasting inequalities in participation. Second, Fragmented Data Practices driven by socio-organisational factors limited the consistent recording and sharing of data and hindered the ability to reach shared insights. Lastly, challenges around Ownership as a holistic concept in Smart Cities shaped the roles, responsibilities, and power of stakeholders in the initiatives. These contributions are important to theory and offer significant implications for practice relevant to the current priorities of policing in the countries studied.