Professor Bennett Capers Explores Race, Technology, and the Future of Policing

WHAT MIGHT THE COUNTRY LOOK LIKE IN 2044, when the United States is projected to tip from being majority white to majority minority, or in the ensuing years, when people of color also wield the majority of political and economic power? And specifically, what might policing look like?

These are the questions Bennett Capers, the Stanley A. August Professor of Law, takes up in his article “Afrofuturism, Critical Race Theory, and Policing in the Year 2044,” 94 New York University Law Review 1 (2019). Capers is a prolific scholar on the relationship between race, gender, and criminal justice. At the Law School, he teaches evidence, criminal procedure, and criminal law. He spent nearly 10 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

In his article, Capers analyzes policing issues in the context of Afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology; and in the context of critical race theory (CRT), a framework that uses critical theory to examine society and culture as they relate to categorizations of race, law, and power.

Capers anticipates that in an Afrofuturist and CRT-informed future, crime will have dropped dramatically, owing, in part, to societal changes in the redistribution of wealth. Extant and emerging technology (e.g., race-neutral surveillance, big data, and terahertz scanners, as well as vast improvements in face, voice, and gait recognition) also will help reduce crime and lead to a drastic reduction in the use of force by police.

“I hope the article will encourage people of color, progressives, and others to think about and envision the future,” said Capers. “It’s easy to be pessimistic about the status quo. But smart people should start planning now for a future world in order to better map a way toward it. It’s important to have a vision.”