This project is generously supported by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research under their Main Grant scheme in 2026. 

This call was on ‘Technological innovation, harm, and human rights in contemporary policing environments’  

The call "aligns SIPR with our newly launched digital policing and technological harms network. Rapidly developing technological innovation presents a range new capacities to policing organisations. Technologies like Live Facial Recognition and Artificial Intelligence promise to improve effectiveness with automation, and enhance capacity to respond to changing local, national, and global threats and technological harms in an era of ‘urgency’. However, their adoption must be pursued cautiously to mitigate any risks they may present to policing organisations, Scotland’s communities, and to ensure the preservation of human rights.   

The Scottish Institute for Policing Research invites applicants to propose a programme of work which critically assesses the implications of new technologies deployed in both offending or policing contexts with a particular focus on human rights, ethics, and emergent forms of harm that technological innovation may alleviate or exacerbate. Technological innovation should be understood as broadly defined (e.g. UAVs, Live facial recognition, artificial intelligence, digital platforms and services).  We are interested in funding projects that pursue research with policed communities and/or police organisations which reveal or address harms associated with new technologies, how they are used to commit crime or how they may be leveraged in policing contexts. "