Automated Speed Enforcement as a Mechanism of Social Control?

Abstract

This thesis focuses on how the recently implemented automated speed enforcement (ASE) program in the City of Toronto functions as a tool of social control. Using a governmentality lens, it investigates the linkages between techniques for regulating conduct and the rationalities that justify and push citizens into modifying and constructing themselves. The central research question guiding this project is: How does automated speed enforcement (ASE) function as a mechanism of social control? The research conducted to investigate this question was divided into two stages. Phase 1 involved examining information from publicly available open datasets from the City of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service, and Ontario's Open Data Catalogue pertaining to ASE. The findings from this phase pointed to differing traffic reporting standards between stakeholders, discrepancies between the publicly stated priorities that are meant to inform the selection of locations at which ASE is installed and the location of 24 current ASE sites in the city, and gaps in ASE related information to which members of the public currently have access. Phase 2 involved conducting key informant interviewees with representatives from the City of Toronto, City Councillors, and representatives of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. These interviews revealed that there exist informal and formalized data sharing practices among road safety stakeholders, and that despite the existence of publicly available site selection criteria ambiguities persist regarding how locations for ASE installations actually are selected. Equally noteworthy, the interviews exposed contrasting perceptions about the extent to which monetary considerations inform the deployment and use of ASE. By examining the assemblages of tools, processes, and practices comprising the City of Toronto's ASE infrastructure, this thesis sheds light on how the latter work together to regulate, shape, and function as a post-panopticon tool of social control in the City of Toronto.