‘Be vigilant!’ digital neighbourhood watch systems

While citizen participation in the co-production of order has become a sociological object of interest in recent years in France, the municipal and citizen uses of private digital surveillance devices remain little known. The article explores these uses, based on a qualitative survey (interviews, observations, analysis of the documentary corpus) covering two municipalities located in the suburbs and outer suburbs of a city with a population of just over 100,000. Municipal involvement in these systems is a social reaction to disorder, yet the existence of dissension among residents as to the validity of the systems has not been enough to involve them in decision making about their implementation. These digital tools, used in multiple ways – including misappropriation –, also reveal the selective surveillance of certain groups and encourage a process of labelling deviance. The article thus reveals the ambivalent effects of these digital surveillance activities.