Governing liberty through accountability: surveillance reporting as technologies of Governmentality

Law enforcement agencies are often subject to enhanced monitoring and periodic reporting requirements as part of a liberal governance paradigm that entails the protection of human rights. Police and security intelligence agencies must report on their use of surveillance powers, including the number of times they have sought and received warrants to use surveillance devices, the types of investigatory methods deployed, the range of offenses with which they are associated, and the extent to which authorizations for these powers are tied to criminal convictions. These surveillance accountability reports function as a primary mechanism to “monitor” government encroachments into the private sphere—to ensure that liberal democratic principles of fairness, respect for human rights, and the right to privacy are upheld. This article focuses on Australian government surveillance accountability reports as a technology of governmentality and examines how their content and form are intimately connected to broader developments in technology-mediated forms of state surveillance.