Suspicion-in-the-Making: Surveillance and Denunciation in Financial Policing

The pervasiveness of suspicion throughout society has become a central theme in the literature, especially with the importance of suspicious activity reporting in counterterrorism policies. Yet, little is known about the ‘suspicion-in-the-making’. The article aims to shed light on the production of suspicion as routine work for people and businesses invited to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the State in the name of security. The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is the paradigmatic example of how suspicious activity reporting serves as the backbone of policing practices. Drawing on empirical research in Canada, the focus on financial policing provides an opportunity to reflect upon the formalization of the suspicion-in-the-making in general, outside police and intelligence organizations in particular.