Police ethnography, abolition, Rancière and political theology

The anthropology of police and policing has grown steadily over the past two decades (Clarke & Hornberger, 2023; Fassin, 2017; Garriott, 2013; Karpiak & Garriott, 2018; Martin, 2018), with a renewed wave of attention sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM movement has not only prompted reflection on police violence against Black folks in the United States (Burton, 2015; Mutsaers et al., 2015; Ralph, 2020a, 2020b; Taylor, 2013), but has also opened new avenues for critical approaches to policing and racism beyond the United States (Alves, 2018, 2021; Byler, 2023; Haynes, 2023; Ibrahim, 2021; Korvensyrjä, 2024; Yonucu & Parker, 2023). Moreover, recent conversations on decoloniality and abolition have urged anthropologists—both those studying the police and beyond—to critically reflect on their methodological tools and their potential contribution, whether intentional or unintentional, to systems of oppression (Alves, 2021; Cox, 2022; Glück, 2024; Scott, 2022; Shange, 2022). While the anthropology of police and policing has traditionally centred on the police as the main protagonists in ethnographic research (Fassin, 2013, 2019; Jauregui, 2019; Martin, 2019), recently anthropologists and other ethnographers have increasingly addressed the ethical and practical challenges of conducting research with and among police forces (Alves, 2021; Jauregui, 2013; LeBrón, 2019). The issues raised by these challenges are especially critical for ethnographers who engage and align with communities targeted by the police.