Knowledge as Power and Accountability in Enforcement

Sor Juana understood that controlling access to knowledge was a mechanism of power and oppression; institutional authorities hoarded intellectual resources to maintain dominance. In policing, knowledge-hoarding operates similarly: departments withhold information about enforcement patterns, decide which communities receive police protection, and control narrative about their own practices, enabling abuse while preventing accountability. A framework grounding police in Sor Juana's insights requires radical transparency—sharing enforcement data by community, explaining legal authority for specific practices, publishing complaint outcomes, and making police decision-making visible to communities. When police knowledge circulates openly, communities can organize collective response, challenge false narratives, and hold enforcement accountable. Moreover, sharing knowledge democratizes power: when communities understand their legal rights, police practices, and available recourse mechanisms, they shift from passive subjects to active participants. Police departments resisting transparency reveal that they operate on principles of domination rather than justice. True accountability across cultures requires communities' access to the knowledge that shapes enforcement decisions affecting them.