The Dialectics of Discretion in Algorithmic Governance and Smart Policing

Algorithmic systems are slowly transforming policing and governing practices. Their manifestations, however, vary in particularistic settings. While proponents argue that algorithmic infrastructures will make policing impartial and objective, critics argue that they automate systems of inequality, exacerbate marginalisations and insulate institutions from democratic accountability. In this paper, I draw from a postcolonial nation in the global south to engage with the literature on algorithmic governance and unpack the effect of algorithmic systems on the discretion of subordinate-level police personnel.

I propose that practices of algorithmic governance may be better documented and understood through the dialectics of discretion. Demonstrating this, I note the emergence of two tendencies in the incorporation of algorithmic frameworks in policing in Kerala – one, insulation of subordinate personnel from the public, and two, invisiblisation of the discretion of subordinate personnel.

This paper is derived from a research study conducted between August 2022 and August 2024, documenting the digital transformation of policing and state practices in Kerala, India. Building on a separate 11-month long ethnographic study of everyday practices and power relations in police stations in India in 2019, this study focused on investigating how e-governance and smart policing initiatives are linked to ‘effective governance’ and ‘effective policing’ in the dominant rhetoric of the state.

For the purposes of this paper, I turn the gaze inwards to explore how algorithmic infrastructures affect the practice of discretion within the police force. To do so, I take recourse to a discourse analysis of how algorithmic governance and policing are perceived in the context of Kerala, drawing from interviews with key participants (police personnel and state functionaries) and extensive documentation of state initiatives and their reportage.