Security Practices Amid Politics: Data Replication, Transgression and Distanciation in Post-Brexit Police Cooperation

Abstract This article examines how UK police forces succeeded in maintain intelligence-sharing with European counterparts despite a political context hostile to the EU. Contrary to assumptions of neutrality, security professionals can contradict and overturn political decisions, as seen in how they infringed EU law and devised strategies to get their interests first. In the lead-up to Brexit, UK police forces unlawfully copied personal data contained in the Schengen Information System ii along other practices to retain access to intelligence. Mobilising a Bourdieusian approach, this article argues that police practices are shaped by interdependent relationships with the field of politicians where autonomy is relative and always negotiated. These dynamics underpin the production of distanciation , i.e., how the dispositions of police personnel play a role in triggering practices to anticipate political moves. In conducting this analysis, this paper also highlights the broader implications of security practices in terms of democratic accountability.