<aside> đź’ˇ In Fall 2022, students in the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, an abolitionist space retooling data for justice in the African American Studies Department at Princeton University investigated New Jersey police contracts with ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology company. This zine is a culmination of our findings. This page documents our readings and learnings throughout the Fall that can serve as a framework for political education around ShotSpotter for anyone interested, particularly students.
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(1) assess Shotspotter’s presence in NJ and (2) draw connections between Shotspotter’s use globally by the Israeli police against occupied Palestinians.
Through our assessment, our team hopes to help launch an NJ-based, internationally focuses abolitionist campaign against Shotspotter that articulates how surveillance isn’t safety through a Black internationalist framework.
<aside> đź’ˇ A central research question will be: how to assess and imagine liberatory forms of resistance to policing technologies in our everyday, rather than waiting on policy change? How can we conduct this research in a way that is accessible to community members?
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PART 1: Orienting, Outreach, and Information Gathering