plus even more relevant to HN is when authorities are using algorithms as a scapegoat. we probably know what will happen when they start using black box ML with

plus even more relevant to HN is when authorities are using algorithms as a scapegoat. we probably know what will happen when they start using black box ML with a ton of bias baked in. There is a scary (gross in my mind) story that reports on some dystopian pre-crime Minority Report Sheriff targeting kids. Looks like the court case is in process, though not sure why court didn't immediately shut it down pending trial given how (to my non-lawyer brain) this seems that plaintiffs will almost definitely prevail given clear violations of multiple Amendments. From the reporting: "Over the span of five months, police went to his home 21 times. They also showed up at his gym and his parent’s place of work. The Tampa Bay Times revealed that since 2015, the sheriff's office has made more than 12,500 similar preemptive visits to people. These visits often resulted in other, unrelated fines and arrests that further victimized families and added to the likelihood that they would be visited and harassed again. In one incident, the mother of a targeted teenager was issued a $2,500 fine for having chickens in the backyard. In another incident, a father was arrested because his 17-year-old was smoking a cigarette. These behaviors occur in all neighborhoods, across all economic strata—but only marginalized people, who live under near constant police scrutiny, face penalization." https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2020/investigations/police-pasco-sheriff-targeted/school-data/ https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2020/investigations/p... https://ij.org/press-release/pasco-families-win-round-one-in-lawsuit-challenging-predictive-policing-program/ https://ij.org/press-release/pasco-families-win-round-one-in...