ALGOPOL: Research into Value-Sensitive and Transparent Algorithmization in the Police

Research Team

Prof. dr. Albert Meijer
Project leader and promotor. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Albert Meijer is a full professor of public innovation at the Utrecht School of Governance and chair of the Public Management Group. He is a well-known expert in public administration in an information age with a series of publications on public innovation, smart cities, ICT, data and social media in the public sector. He collaborates in several international multidisciplinary research networks on social media, open data and smart governance. Read more
Prof. dr. José van Dijck
Subproject leader and promotor. Utrecht University, Institute for Cultural Inquiry.
José van Dijck is a distinguished university professor of media and digital society at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on media, social media and media technologies. Read more
Dr. Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen
Sub-project leader and co-promotor. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen is an associate professor at the Utrecht School of Governance. Core themes in his research are transparency, citizen trust in government, technology and government, experimental methodology, behavioral public administration. Read more
Dr. Mirko Schaefer
Co-promotor. Utrecht University, Utrecht Data School.
Mirko Schaefer is co-founder and project lead of the Utrecht Data School. He is a member of the steering committee at the research area Governing the Digital Society and a member of the research area Applied Data Science. His research interest revolves around the socio- political impact of media technology. His publications cover user participation in cultural production, datafication, politics of software design and communication in social media. Read more
Prof. dr. Floris Bex
Team member and promotor. Utrecht University, Department of Information and computing sciences. Tilburg University, Tilburg Institute for Law, Society and Technology.
Floris is scientific director of the Police Lab AI at Utrecht University and professor of Data Science and the Judiciary at Tilburg University. His research focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and law, in particular the design, development and evaluation of AI systems in the field of justice and security. Although his scientific area is (technical) AI systems, he also looks at more legal, ethical and organizational aspects of such AI systems. Read more
Dr. Merijn Bruijnes
Senior researcher, Utrecht University, School of Governance.
With a background in psychology and computer science, I work within the ALGOPOL project on an organizational reflection tool that allows the police to design and evaluate algorithms. The focus is on the transparency and value sensitivity of an algorithm and its impact on the various stakeholders, for example employees and the organization on the one hand, and citizens and society on the other. Read more
Esther Nieuwenhuizen
PhD Candidate. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Esther Nieuwenhuizen obtained a bachelor’s degree in Governance and Organisational Science (2015-2018) and a master’s degree in Public Management (2019-2020) at Utrecht University (with honors). Esther is a PhD candidate at the Department of Governance and Organisational Science (USBO). In her doctoral research she focuses on the influence of transparency on citizen trust in AI-tools used by the Dutch National Police. Read more
Isabelle Fest
PhD Candidate. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
sabelle Fest works as a PhD candidate on the ALGOPOL project. In her doctoral research, Isabelle uses ethnographic methods to shed light on the role of public values in algorithm design, use and implementation by the Netherlands Police. Next to her research related activities, Isabelle also teaches at the Utrecht School of Governance. 

Prior to her PhD career, Isabelle worked as a policy researcher/advisor at the court of audit for the Dutch Provinces of North-Brabant and Limburg (2018-2020). Read more
Carlos Soares
Researcher and adviser. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Carlos Soares is a researcher and adviser at the Police lab AI of Utrecht University. Working at the interface between theory and practice, Carlos focuses on evaluating man-machine collaboration. The main theme of his research is exploring the collaboration between the police officer and the artificial intelligent (AI) system.
Friso Selten
Master thesis. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Friso Selten is a student at the research master Research in Public Administration and Organisational Science. Before this, he obtained a bachelor degree in Public Administration and a master degree in Data Science. Within this programme, he is writing his master's thesis on the interaction between police officers and AI. The main focus this thesis are the effects that the use of algorithms have on the decision-making process of police officers.
Timo Damm
Student assistant. Utrecht University, School of Governance.
Timo Damm is a Master student Research in Public Administration and Organisational Science at Utrecht University. He is the student assistant for this project. Read more