Neoliberalisation of Security, Austerity and the 'End of Public Policy': Governing Crime in Memphis (TN, USA) Through Predictive Policing, Community, Grants and Police 'Mission Creep'.

The government of security and safety constitutes a privileged angle from which to study the links among government, public policy and urban dynamics, particularly in places where neoliberalisation intersects with historical racial and class tensions -- as is the case in many US cities. I am concerned with the connection between (racialised) security politics and the institutional transformation of local security policymaking. I use the case of Memphis (TN, USA), which is paradigmatic of the neoliberalisation of security and permanent 'low-intensity' austerity; present four practices and trends - 'predictive' policing, rhetoric about 'community' selfdefence, safety 'grants' and the 'mission creep' of the militarised police department; and discuss continuities/discontinuities with regard to long-term trends of restructuring crime control in the USA. The case of security policymaking allows me to argue that austerity and neoliberal rule tend to replace public policy -- intended as a course of action stemming from conscious choice by the government - with a complicated patchwork of state intervention/disengagement, whose ultimate effect is the 'end of public policy' proper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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