Past Events

Since the start of this project, we have organized two main events.

Workshop: Guarantees of Non-Recurrence: Transformative Police Reform

In the fall of 2018, we organized a workshop that brought together several experts from various disciplines to exchange their expertise from diverse case-studies. We aligned two rather distinctive strands of research – police reform and transformative justice – and thereby used the lens of transformative justice to study when and how the interplay between top-down and bottom-up initiatives may lead to more sustainable and peaceful police reforms. By comparing and contrasting a wide range of empirical case studies across the globe (France, Kenya, South Africa, the South Pacific, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States) we identified several analytical and practical insights to arrive at a better understanding and ways to improve the troubled relationship between police and citizens.

Expert Roundtable: Predictive Policing in the Netherlands

In February 2020 we organised an expert roundtable on the issue of Predictive Policing. Predictive policing refers to policing tactics that use advanced analysis to inform forward-thinking crime prevention. Predictive policing software focuses on preventing crime by forecasting where certain crimes will occur so that law enforcement will be better placed to respond to and potentially prevent these crimes. These technological advancements in policing also create a new set of issues and unintended consequences that policy makers should consider. Without careful consideration, such technologies may to lead to increased surveillance of poor, urban majority-minority communities, without having a noticeable impact on accountability or public safety.

The objective of the expert roundtable, organized with the support of the Centre for Global Challenges and the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and the Administration of Justice, was to bring together key stakeholders involved with predictive policing in the Netherlands and to exchange ideas and concerns around the growth of predictive policing practices. Participants provided insights into how policing has been transforming in recent years with the growth of the technology being employed.

You can find a summary of the report here.