Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 7 July 2018
Should police use computers to predict crimes and criminals?

By DAVE COLLINS by Palantir Technologies,
Associated Press which was co-founded by
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — tech financier and PayPal
Years of secrecy by Amer- co-founder Peter Thiel with
ica's police departments backing from an invest-
about their use of com- ment arm of the CIA. The
puter programs predicting company has helped the
where crimes will occur, military in Iraq and Afghani-
and who will commit them, stan.
are under fire in legal cases Challenges in some other
nationwide. cities:
The largest departments — In Hartford, police are
— New York, Chicago and facing a complaint by the
Los Angeles — are all be- Connecticut ACLU to the
ing sued for not releasing state public records com-
information about their mission for not releasing in-
"predictive policing" pro- formation about analytical
grams, which use algo- software for the city's sur-
rithms to crunch data and veillance camera system
create lists of people and that officials say will help
neighborhoods for officers predict crime and capture
to target. Some smaller de- suspects.
partments also have been — Journalists sued Chicago
brought to court and be- last year in an effort to get
fore public records agen- information on what data
cies. goes into its so-called "heat
A top concern, advocates list," which ranks certain
say, is that the computer people on how likely they
programs perpetuate the are to become perpetra-
problem of minorities be- tors or victims of crime. The
ing arrested at higher rates In this June 29, 2012 file photo, Jeff Brantingham, anthropology professor at the University of case remains pending.
than whites. If arrest and California Los Angeles, displays a computer generated view of "predictive policing," zones at the "People are rightfully skepti-
crime location data that Los Angeles Police Department Unified Command Post (UCP) in Los Angeles. cal of the government us-
show such biases are fed Associated Press ing computers to predict
into the algorithms, they who's going to commit a
argue, police will continue affiliation and other factors. Critics say they've already increased police activity. crime," said Matthew Top-
targeting minorities and Some cities are spending seen what they believe is "I know better to never nor- ic, a lawyer for the journal-
minority neighborhoods at hundreds of thousands of evidence of biases in pre- malize this or see this as nor- ists. "Maybe this heat list is
higher rates. dollars, even millions, on dictive policing, including mal. I'm about to burst." a legitimate tool. Maybe
Several groups and organi- predictive policing pro- increased arrests in neigh- Saba said she can't be cer- it could be used better.
zations have taken police grams, with many of the borhoods heavily popu- tain whether Rose Hill is the The whole point of having
agencies to court in an ef- costs paid for by state and lated by blacks and Latinos subject of predictive polic- transparency laws is we, as
fort to find out what data federal law enforcement and people on computer- ing because police won't the public, get to second-
is being fed into the pro- grants. generated lists being re- release that information. A guess everything govern-
grams, how the algorithms Several dozen U.S. police peatedly harassed by po- group she co-founded, the ment does."
work and exactly what the departments use some lice. Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, — A judge in December or-
end results are, including form of predictive policing, Mariella Saba believes pre- sued the police depart- dered New York City police
which people and areas and more than a hundred dictive policing labeled her ment in February seeking to release records about
are on the lists and how po- others are considering or Los Angeles neighborhood, data about its program. its predictive policing tools
lice are using the data. planning to start such pro- Rose Hill, as a crime hot The LAPD has released after officials declined to
"Everybody is trying to find grams, according to counts spot, because she has seen some data to the group disclose documents re-
out how it works, if it's fair," and estimates by different heavy law enforcement but hasn't hand over other quested by the Brennan
said Jay Stanley, a senior groups. activity. Friends and neigh- information, including cop- Center for Justice at New
policy analyst for the Amer- Police officials say they bors, many of them Latino, ies of "chronic offender bul- York University School of
ican Civil Liberties Union. can't release some infor- have been stopped by po- letins" that list people of in- Law. The center is seeking
"This is all pretty new. This is mation about their predic- lice multiple times, she said. terest to police. The lawsuit information about the de-
all experimental. And there tive programs because of One friend, Pedro Echever- remains pending. partment's use of Palan-
are reasons to think this citizen privacy and safety ria, was shot three times by The LAPD can't release tir's products and other re-
is discriminatory in many concerns and because a police officer last year but some information because cords.
ways." some data is proprietary. survived. Prosecutors ruled of concerns about citizens' — Information about New
The programs are devel- The programs are helping the shooting justified, say- privacy, and other data Orleans' predictive policing
oped by private compa- to reduce crime and bet- ing Echeverria had a gun sought by Saba's group program is being sought in
nies such as Palantir and ter deploy officers in a time and fought with officers. doesn't exist, said Josh Ru- court by Kentrell Hickerson,
PrePol and can tell police of declining budgets and Police said they decided to binstein, a police spokes- who is appealing his con-
where and when crimes staffing, they argue. stop him as he was walking man. victions on gang-related
are likely to occur by ana- Some studies have arrived on a street because he was "We're not trying to dodge charges. A judge said in
lyzing years of crime loca- at conflicting conclusions in Rose Hill, a "known hang- anything," he said. "They're April that Hickerson can
tion data. Other, more criti- about whether predic- out" for gang members, ac- making assumptions about subpoena city officials for
cized programs produce tive policing is effective or cording to a prosecutor's what we're doing that information on whether
lists of likely criminals and biased, but there has not report. aren't true." data from the program
victims based on people's been definitive research "It's traumatic. It creates The LAPD uses a data min- were used in his case. The
criminal history, age, gang yet, experts say. trauma," Saba, 30, of the ing program developed case remains pending.q