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Afterlives of Police Reform: Informing, Complicity, and Citizen-Police Subjects in Turkey
Abstract
The Turkish National Police has invested heavily in establishing citizen- and community-oriented policing projects in the last fifteen years. Reformers believed that a strong police-public relationship would curtail authoritarian policing and police violence. Celebrated police reform themes, however, have enabled a renewed partnership between police and citizens. This has paved the way for more ‘citizen-police’ subjects in the increasingly repressive environment of the country. Based on 18 months of ethnographic research, this talk will analyze these citizen-police subjects, and the various practices of informing that are generated through community policing and the introduction of digital policing technologies. Overall, this analysis sheds light on authoritarian trends circulating around the world, including in Turkey, by examining the forms of politicization and policing emerging at the neighborhood level with the increasing complicity of citizens.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
Security Studies