Students Under Surveillance: Big Data Policing and Privacy Rights

The surveillance and securitization of schools has transformed over the last decade to include predictive analytics and algorithms. In Florida, for example, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office used school record data sets to identify and monitor youth they believed were “destined for a life of crime.” Yet the extent of big data policing as a model of surveillance and control in American public schools has not been addressed in meaningful ways by schools and the courts. This essay argues the burden and risk on student Fourth Amendment and privacy rights place an obligation on the government to actively protect student data and make big data policing efforts transparent. Future research is critical to address the systemic inequities that policing and surveillance have exacerbated on America’s youth.