ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the case study of predictive policing to consider how automation reconfigures logics of simulation as pre-emption. In the context of data-driven policing, strategies of prevention rely on narrative explanations of causality and on situated and delimited conceptions of agency: fluctuations in crime rates, for example, can be attributed to underlying social causes (poverty rates, educational opportunities, employment opportunities, etc.). Policy approaches influenced by the logic of prevention seek to intervene at the level of underlying causes (economic and social programs, strategies of deterrence, and so on). By contrast, strategies of pre-emption shift the emphasis to addressing criminality at its moment of emergence: sending officers to a particular address during a specific time of day so as to prevent an imminent act. The tendency is to shift the emphasis from the symbolic power of surveillance (that compels subjects to internalize the monitoring gaze) to its pre-emptive role (to discern, in real time, when and where a violent or criminal act may take place). The practical effect, once again, is to invoke the imperative of comprehensive surveillance.
