Introduction: the discreet charm of predictive policing

Over the past 20 years, police organisations and practices across the globe have adopted data-driven tools to predict and prevent crime. Advances in digitalisation combined with the increasing role of private security, tech, and consulting companies are reshaping contemporary policing. Techno-managerialism, underpinned by computational logic, has altered the way we think – from causality to correlations and probabilities. In this introduction, we present the historical origins of predictive policing, a genealogical analysis of the concept, and introduce external factors for understanding the rise of predictive policing. Next, the critical understanding of predictive policing will be presented. The background is that the discreet charm of prediction, in terms of increased efficiency, reduced fiscal burdens, improved accuracy of decision-making, streamlined data management, and lower crime rates, has in recent years been met with scepticism, considerable critique, and even warnings of dystopia. We conclude the introduction by presenting our interdisciplinary approach to predictive policing and the volume's analysis of digital police infrastructure in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.