Fingerprinting in the colonies extended police power over the already-suspected rather than identifying unknowns

Evidence

Along with other forms of identification that were introduced in the colonies, the point of fingerprinting was not primarily to identify unknown subjects (who hadn’t been fingerprinted yet) but to extend police power over groups who were already under suspicion and already indexed by the system. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 320

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the data-colonialism argument about Aadhaar and surveillance capitalism: identification systems target the already-indexed, not strangers. — connects to: New surveillance techniques generated new suspects and reinterpreted the crime’s causality
• QUESTION: Evaluate this against the mainstream glorification of fingerprinting as forensic ‘identification’ — this re-framing is the crux of the rival-school reading.

Broader Connections

• New surveillance techniques generated new suspects and reinterpreted the crime’s causality #expands (0.82)