Dev.SN

Chicago Pre-Crime - Racism Cloaked in Science

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:00PM   
from the studies-show-poverty-causes-cancer dept.

Angry Jesus writes:

"The Chicago Police Department is mis-applying epidemiological science (the study of entire populations) to target individuals in a real-life version of Minority Report. They have decided that it is a good idea to put people on a secret list based on a Big Data analysis of their social networks. But don't worry, it isn't racist or abusive because, Science!"

• Re:I wonder how this will turn out Re:I wonder how this will turn out (Score: 3, Interesting) by demonlapin on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:43PM

  by demonlapin (925) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:43PM (#7677) Journal

  From TFA:

  22-year-old high school dropout

  hadn't committed a crime or interacted with a police officer recently

  he didn't have a violent criminal record, nor any gun violations.

  Emphasis added. That looks like a pretty straightforward criminal profile: guy who has committed property crimes in the past, high likelihood he'll be a repeat offender. In fact, I heard about just this sort of program being used in High Point, NC, on NPR [npr.org] last month. And they were very positive about it. They even talked about how Chicago was going to try to implement it.

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  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Interesting=1, Underrated=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		3

• Re:I wonder how this will turn out Re:I wonder how this will turn out (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:47AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2014, @10:47AM (#7970)

  I parsed that sentence differently:

  "hadn't (committed a crime) or (interacted with a police officer recently)"

  Parent

  • Re:I wonder how this will turn out (Score: 1) by demonlapin on Thursday February 27 2014, @09:19PM

    by demonlapin (925) on Thursday February 27 2014, @09:19PM (#8196) Journal

    If your reading were correct, they would not have had to say "did not have a violent criminal record". They would just have said "did not have a criminal record".

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