Out of Place in Blue Space: Noticing as a Stopping Technology and the Limits of Stop and Search Reform

Abstract This paper introduces the concept of ‘blue space’ as a theoretical framework for (re)defining the boundaries of police stops. Reflecting on ethnographic research with police officers in Scotland and England, we draw on Ahmed’s concept of ‘white space’ to understand police encounters with the public in ‘blue space’. We argue that police presence in ‘blue space’ acts as a stopping technology, which renders certain bodies as noticeable and out of place, orientating how bodies ‘take up’ space. Being attuned to a subtle economy of bodily movements—looks, glances or even the presence of police officers—can shape how bodies inhabit space. We explore how officers tacitly leverage their presence to ‘stop’ certain bodies in ways not captured by focusing on recorded police stops. In doing so, we consider how blue space challenges a reform landscape that focuses predominately on formal, recorded police stops.