Author archives

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Professor of Law, American University. Professor Ferguson teaches and writes in the area of criminal procedure, evidence, and new technologies. He is a national expert on juries, predictive policing, big data surveillance, and the Fourth Amendment. His articles have appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, the Northwestern Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the University of Southern California Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review among others. Professor Ferguson’s book The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement (NYU Press) examines how surveillance technology and predictive analytics shapes modern policing. His first book Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Constitutional Action (NYU Press) is the first book written for jurors on jury duty. (Book Review). For D.C. residents he also stars in the “Welcome To Jury Duty Video” in D.C. Superior Court seen by more than 30,000 citizens annually.

DOJ funding pipeline subsidizes questionable big data surveillance technologies

Professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson discusses how predictive policing has been shown to be an ineffective and biased policing tool. Yet, the Department of Justice has been funding the crime surveillance and analysis technology for years and continues to do so despite criticism from researchers, privacy advocates and members of Congress. Guthrie’s research reveals an entire ecosystem of how technology companies, police departments and academics benefit from the flow of federal dollars for these surveillance technologies.

Subjects: Big Data, Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Legal Research, Privacy, Spyware