Chicago scraps gunshot detection system accused of racial bias
Community groups say ShotSpotter system sends police to Black and Latino neighborhoods for unnecessary and hostile encounters
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Johnson, a first-term mayor, campaigned on a promise to end the use of ShotSpotter, putting him at odds with police leaders who have praised the system.
They argue that crime rates – not residents’ race – determine where the technology is deployed.
And due to decades of racist policing focusing on communities based on residents' race those crime rates are based on exactly that.
This is why police forces love AI; they can feed the systems data based on their own history racist policing and absolve themselves of responsibility when the garbage coming out matches the garbage going in.
That's a bingo right there.
Just an excuse to continue to harass areas that have historically been harassed.
Doesn't make any sense anyway. If I'm Whitey McWhiterson (I am, but if) and I want law enforcement protecting me and not minorities, I'd want this deployed in my neighborhood, right? Or is the false positive rate too high?
Not only is the false positive rate way too high, they’ve caught the company working with law enforcement to retroactively add fake data points to support raids and arrests.
You don't want that. Because at any given moment, kids are committing all sorts of minor violations. They trespass, stay out too late, get into scuffles, etc.
But now there's a cop watching you 24x7, and catches you smoking at 14 in a closed construction site with your friends... you get arrested cause the cop is a jackass. Now you've got a record, you missed a couple weeks of school, and college won't accept you, and your future is fucked.
You did the exact same thing that millions of other teens did, but because a cop happened to feel kinda like fucking you over, your life is ruined.
You DO NOT want cops patrolling your neighborhood, or anywhere you hang out.
I can't relate. I'll take your word for it but the only shenanigans I got into as a kid was sneaking into R rated movies. Oh I got busted once for sneaking into private property and having sex with my girlfriend. Owner wanted to press charges but the cop talked her out of it because I was 17 and maybe a month from shipping out for basic training. I've never had a negative interaction with a cop.
But you know I'm a pretty fucking boring person. Don't take that to mean I'm on the cops' side when they do stupid shit. I'm just not on team ACAB.
...You realize you are agreeing with me, right? If that cop just felt like it, you would have been fucked, and there was nothing you could have done about it...
That is exactly what happens to minority kids all the time. I'm going to assume you're not black, cause that exact same situation with a black kid would have ended up with that kid not going to basic.
I never said I disagreed. I said I couldn't relate. I never smoked or broke into construction where I could represent an insurance liability or be blamed (rightly or wrongly) for missing equipment or graffiti. Sounds like the sort of thing a person ought to get in trouble for - white or black. We aren't arguing.
Or is the false positive rate too high?
I'll preface this by saying I have no idea how the system works, but I wouldn't be surprised. I have an old motorcycle that will occasionally get in a mood where it doesn't want to start. If I'm not in a rush, I'll let it sit a few minutes between tries, but if I have somewhere to be, I'll keep fighting with it and keep cranking the starter, which often leads to a massive backfire. I've made neighbors think someone's shooting before.
