Future Policing: Technology and Transformation

Future Policing examines how technologies such as facial recognition, quantum computing, virtual reality, data integration, artificial intelligence, robot cops, electrocardiograms, predictive policing, and investigative genetic genealogy are transforming the practice and governance of contemporary law enforcement.

Bringing together interdisciplinary scholars from eight countries, this 20-chapter volume offers empirically grounded analyses of how technologies are adopted, implemented, regulated, and experienced in practice. Chapters synthesize research evidence, operational experience, and theoretical debate to evaluate claims of efficiency, objectivity, and innovation, while identifying the social, legal, and ethical consequences that accompany digital transformation. At a critical moment when police agencies are investing heavily in technological solutions while navigating a fast-moving landscape of evolving tools, claims, and expectations, this volume provides a much-needed evidence base for understanding what these systems change in practice and what outcomes they realistically produce. And by bringing sustained critical investigation and scrutiny to rapidly institutionalizing tools, the collection establishes a foundation for the next generation of policing scholarship.

Rigorous and accessible, Future Policing provides students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, among others, with the insight required to critically assess technological change and understand how innovation is reshaping what policing is, how it is done, and whom it serves.

Laura Huey is a Professor of Sociology at Western University, Editor of Police Practice & Research, Editor of Evidence Base, alumnus of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), and a member of the Canadian Council of Academies’ expert panels on Cybercrime and Policing. Her current research focuses on public order policing, critical incident response, police downloading, policing and mental health and missing persons.

Lorna Ferguson is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Regina, the Founder of the Missing Persons Research Hub, and the Senior Managing Editor for Evidence Base. Dr. Ferguson’s specialization is police responses to missing persons. Her broader research program extends to related areas of policing, including incident command, evidence-based policing, technology and innovation, police data and intelligence, cybercrime, responses involving persons with mental illness, and police reform.

Ian T. Adams is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina, where he is a 2025 McCausland Faculty Fellow in recognition of excellence in research and teaching. He has been involved in law enforcement and policing for over 20 years as an officer, a labour executive, and a scholar. Dr. Adams’ research addresses practical police concerns, focusing on technology, policy, and behaviour. He is a leading academic voice in the ongoing development of evidence-based practices in policing.