Covert surveillance and the invisibilities of policing
| Author | Bethan Loftus,Benjamin Goold |
| Published date | 01 July 2012 |
| Date | 01 July 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895811432014 |
| Subject Matter | Themed Section: Surveillance, technology and the everyday |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
12(3) 275 –288
© The Author(s) 2011
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895811432014
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Covert surveillance and
the invisibilities of policing
Bethan Loftus
University of Manchester, UK
Benjamin Goold
University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract
This article draws upon research from the first ethnographic field study of covert policing
conducted in the United Kingdom, and seeks to shed light on how covert officers carry out
their surveillance work. In particular, it demonstrates how officers attempt to blend into their
surroundings and render their work invisible in order to intrude into the daily lives of those
people considered suspect. In so doing, we highlight some hitherto unnoticed aspects – or
‘invisibilities’ – of policing, and show that the surveillance strategies used by law enforcement are
increasingly embedded in the most mundane aspects of social life. In contrast to the processes
of mass surveillance that are typically the focus of surveillance scholars, the article serves as a
reminder that the surveillance powers of the State are vastly intensified when individual members
of the public are regarded as suspects by the police.
Keywords
covert policing, incongruity, social control, surveillance
Introduction
There is little doubt that surveillance, in its various forms, has become a routine, every-
day occurrence in late modern societies. For often – but not always – mundane reasons,
numerous agencies have an enthusiastic interest in collecting the personal information of
various populations, before classifying and cataloguing such information. In discussing
the changing face of surveillance, scholars increasingly identify a shift from the indi-
vidualized surveillance that characterized the first half of the 20th century to the mass
Corresponding author:
Bethan Loftus, Simon Fellow, Manchester Centre for Regulation, Governance and Security, University of
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Email: bethan.loftus@manchester.ac.uk
Article
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