Abstract

Even though police organizations are increasingly making use of technology as part of the shift towards intelligence-led policing (ILP), the use of this technology in practice remains an understudied subject. This article aims to shed some light on the practical use of technology in the context of immigration control by making use of over 800 hours of observation and 13 focus groups with officers of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNM), which is responsible for migration and border controls in the Netherlands. By applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to the case study, this article will contribute to understanding which factors explain why technology is accepted, and therefore used, by RNM officers. It also offers a critical assessment of the TAM model in the light of immigration and border control. The results show that the factors perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, quality of information and timeliness of information that are part of the TAM for law enforcement officers are verified. This case study also calls for an expansion of the model to include ‘transparency’ as a critical factor.