Moving Images Through an Assemblage: Police, Visual Information, and Resistance

Through interviews with police and document analysis this article examines the movement of video surveillance images from source to police to the courts in order to assess and refine the surveillant assemblage concept. Using this concept, the case study reveals asymmetrical criminalization processes involving movement of this visual information. The study finds that most video surveillance images transferred to police come from private sources as a consequence of function creep and that their movement epitomizes creation of criminalized ‘data-doubles’. However, the article argues that this criminalizing movement through the police is revealed as less than a seamless process; it is dependent on human labour and encounters forms of resistance along the way that include increased police workload and technological limitations.