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"Jeff had developed simulation models of the geographic and temporal patterning of urban crime, and had created predictive software that he marketed to law enfo

"Jeff had developed simulation models of the geographic and temporal patterning of urban crime, and had created predictive software that he marketed to law enforcement agencies." It's that second part, predicting where crime will occur and selling that to the police, that's controversial. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where this is going. I'm not a woke type, but that is some horrible stuff, and I'm not surprised he got pushback for this.

lvass 4y ago
You think we're in Minority Report already, mate? Not all police technology is a Precrime department. This software is likely meant to help allocating resources efficiently.
scoutt 4y ago
> some horrible stuff Note that I don't agree with many points of the article or the many bad uses of that technology, but for a second, let's imagine you are in charge of organizing and scheduling police patrol routes. Remember you are trying your optimistically best, because you want to truly prevent crime, and the simulation is good and provides meaninful information. Wouldn't that information be useful to you? Would you at least consider it? Otherwise, what other information would you use to plan police patrols? Statistics probably, but how reliable or updated could they be? Would statistics give the information you are looking for?
- the_biot 4y ago
  Right, and the secondary effects? If you live near where some people got robbed, you now have cops stopping you for no reason, just because you look like everybody else in that (now marked as high crime) neighborhood. I have no idea what the optimal way to plan police patrols is, but algorithms predicting crime used to guide patrol planning? That's just dystopian.
  - lvass 4y ago
    The software doesn't have to be stupid, even if stupid was the best you came up with now.
  - scoutt 4y ago
    Police patrol != stopping people. And I wouldn't mind. I've been stopped so many times I can't even remember. If I live in high crime area, I'd want the police to patrol often. Wouldn't you? And high crime areas are already known by police. But it could be interesting to have a model to predict when (other than where) crime will happen. This might optimize the available resources.

lvass 4y ago

You think we're in Minority Report already, mate? Not all police technology is a Precrime department. This software is likely meant to help allocating resources efficiently.

scoutt 4y ago

> some horrible stuff Note that I don't agree with many points of the article or the many bad uses of that technology, but for a second, let's imagine you are in charge of organizing and scheduling police patrol routes. Remember you are trying your optimistically best, because you want to truly prevent crime, and the simulation is good and provides meaninful information. Wouldn't that information be useful to you? Would you at least consider it? Otherwise, what other information would you use to plan police patrols? Statistics probably, but how reliable or updated could they be? Would statistics give the information you are looking for?

the_biot 4y ago
Right, and the secondary effects? If you live near where some people got robbed, you now have cops stopping you for no reason, just because you look like everybody else in that (now marked as high crime) neighborhood. I have no idea what the optimal way to plan police patrols is, but algorithms predicting crime used to guide patrol planning? That's just dystopian.
- lvass 4y ago
  The software doesn't have to be stupid, even if stupid was the best you came up with now.
- scoutt 4y ago
  Police patrol != stopping people. And I wouldn't mind. I've been stopped so many times I can't even remember. If I live in high crime area, I'd want the police to patrol often. Wouldn't you? And high crime areas are already known by police. But it could be interesting to have a model to predict when (other than where) crime will happen. This might optimize the available resources.