It’s All about the Algorithm, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Dept. 0
The EFF reports that Santa Clara, California, has ended its near-decade long experiment with “predictive policing” after finding that it just does not deliver. Here’s a tiny bit from their article (emphasis added):
There is a reason why the use of predictive policing continues to expand despite its dubious foundations: it makes money. Many companies have developed tools for data-driven policing; some of the biggest arePredPol, HunchLab, CivicScape, and Palantir. Academic institutions have also developed predictive policing technologies, such as Rutgers University’s RTM Diagnostics or Carnegie Mellon University’s CrimeScan, which is used in Pittsburgh. . . .
It is almost serendipitous, in a darkly sardonic way, that, in the same week that the EFF released its report, the Tampa Bay Times published the results of its investigation into how predictive policing lead to a cesspool of police surveillance and harassment in Pasco County, Florida. A nugget (again, emphasis added):
Then it sends deputies to find and interrogate anyone whose name appears, often without probable cause, a search warrant or evidence of a specific crime.
They swarm homes in the middle of the night, waking families and embarrassing people in front of their neighbors. They write tickets for missing mailbox numbers and overgrown grass, saddling residents with court dates and fines. They come again and again, making arrests for any reason they can.
One former deputy described the directive like this: “Make their lives miserable until they move or sue.”
