Policing Street Trolls: Navigating Cop Baiting and Digital Extremism

Notes:

• Dual Research Focus: Dr. Huey historically focused on policing and victimization, particularly in marginalized communities.
• Burnout and Shift: Burnout from trauma research led her to shift focus to applied policing research around 2012-2013.
• Economics of Policing: The federal government's focus on the costs of policing and the "economics of policing" initiative influenced her new research direction.
• Research Gaps: Realized that existing policing research in Canada had little practical value for informing policing practice and policy.
• Evidence-Based Policing: Joined the Society for Evidence-Based Policing (SEBP) in the UK to produce actionable research for police and policymakers.
• Right-Wing Extremism: Discussed the rise of right-wing extremism and its new tactic of targeting police officers, including cop baiting.
• Cop Baiting Incidents: Examples include interventions by Romana Didulo at the Peterborough Police Service and incidents in Vancouver during trans rights celebrations.
• Operational Stress: Emphasized the operational stress injuries faced by police officers due to regular exposure to horrific incidents.
• Public Misconceptions: Highlighted the issue of public and media criticism of police without a full understanding of the complexities involved.
• Misinformation: Explained how misinformation and disinformation spread about police actions, leading to doxxing and harassment of officers.
• Cyber Sleuths: Described incidents where online activists exposed personal information about police officers, increasing the risks they face.
• Convoy Protests: Referenced research on convoy protests and the targeting of police, emphasizing the reality versus media portrayal.
• False Narratives: Pointed out the persistence of false narratives, such as those surrounding the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, which continue to spread online despite being disproven.
• Call for Applied Research: Called for more applied research to address specific issues in policing and cyber-security rather than broad theoretical studies, stressing the need for better public education to combat misinformation.

About our guests:

Dr. Laura Huey

https://sociology.uwo.ca/people/profiles/Huey.html

Papers or resources mentioned in this episode:

Huey, L., & Ferguson, L. (2024). ‘No one wants to end up on YouTube’: sousveillance and ‘cop-baiting’ in Canadian policing. Policing and Society, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2329239

Huey, L., & Ferguson, L. (2024). “All These Crazies”: Right-Wing Anti-Authoritarian Politics and the Targeting of Public Police. Deviant Behavior, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2338890

Huey, L. (2024) The Cascade Effect: An Oral History of the Policing of the Convoy Protests, Independant: 979-8882979859

Other:

Dr Huey provided her own ‘bleep’ noises for this episode to save me the work of having to add them in post production.