Policing sounds

Abstract

Sound is always present in exercises of police power, whether produced through sonic weaponry, routinized interventions into social life, or contributions to everyday soundscapes. The use of sound is productive of how police produce, govern, and intervene in space. Scholars in geography and adjacent fields have grappled with sound in ways that engage with or have the potential to inform the study of police within the discipline. Attention to sound adds texture to understandings of state power as expressed through the contested sonic politics of policing. This article explores sound and policing through their territorial, affective, atmospheric, and political effects.