This paper examines a security partnership in Amsterdam. The "fieldlab" co-opts the notion of tinkering — a method traditionally associated with informal, bottom-up experimental problem-solving — to formalize an advanced strategy for urban security.
Long abstract:
This paper examines a security partnership between the Netherlands National Police, the Municipality of Amsterdam, and the Amsterdam Arena Stadium, aimed at experimenting with algorithmic security technologies (crowd recognition, drone surveillance, hotspots management, etc.). The "fieldlab" co-opts the notion of tinkering — a method traditionally associated with informal, bottom-up experimental problem-solving — to formalize an advanced strategy for urban security. The paper first explores the specific bureaucratic object of the "fieldlab", laying out its specificity in relation to other forms of multi-agency cooperation in the field of security. It looks in particular at how the notion of "experimentation" is used to develop policies in a gray area, in which civil rights, privacy and other dimensions of fundamental rights are potentially suspended, in the name of innovation. In the second part, the paper reflects on the possibilities of thinking about a critical alternative to the "fieldlab", when many classic strategies of contestation are already incorporated in the official security policy.