Structured decision-making and technology
The Center is exploring the use of risk assessment instruments, algorithmic tools, and artificial intelligence in the criminal legal system and other systems that govern people's lives.
These tools have been designed, deployed, and advanced as mechanisms to improve decision-making, but carry with them the potential to exacerbate and reify the racial bias that already infects that systems of governance. The Center convenes researchers, advocates, and national leaders on algorithmic tools and technologies and collaborates with social justice and technology focused organizations to produce reports, tool kits, and scholarship to more fully understand the impact that these tools have on communities of color.
As new insights emerge, we engage in advocacy at the local and national level to ensure decision-makers are armed with the right information to make certain that if and when tools are deployed, they are used to reduce, rather than exacerbate, racial harm and inequality. Some examples of the Center's work in this space includes:
- Joint Statement with AI Now Institute on the Pennslyvania Commission on Sentencing's Risk Assessment Instrument
- The Use of Pretrial "Risk Assessment" Instruments: A Shared Statement of Civil Rights Concerns
- Membership on the New York City Automated Decision Systems Task Force
- Litigating Algorithms 2018 and 2019
- Report with ACLU: What Does Fairness Look Like? Conversations on Race, Risk Assessment Tools, and Pretrial Justice
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Training for Beginners
In this training, co-sponsored by The Center on Race, Inequality and the Law and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, learn the ins and outs of how to initiate and navigate records requests from the federal government using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Race and Technology News Updates
Court Cases
- The Warrant Clause in the Digital Age, ACLU (5/3)
City and State Updates
- The environmental terrorism of police choppers, Heated (5/4)
- North Carolina Legislature Pushing Bill That Would Allow Cops To Warrantlessly Track Cell Phones In Real Time, TechDirt (5/4)
- CT Seeks Stricter AI Regulations After Federal Report Suggests Algorithm Bias, CT Examiner (4/26)
- How Louisiana police are using a DNA ‘lab in a box’ to solve crimes, PBS (5/8)
- Critics call out NYPD surveillance robot over transparency concerns, Spectrum News (5/10)
- City councilman introduces bills to limit facial recognition technology, WBAL-TV 11 (5/2)
- Predictive Policing in LA: LAPD Employs Palantir for Surveillance, American Judicial System (4/29)
- ‘Ready for some help?’: how a controversial technology firm courted Portland police, The Guardian (5/3)
- Testimony regarding the oversight and use of biometric identification systems in New York City, NYCLU (5/3)
- St. Paul police plan to use drones in emergency responses, Star Tribune (5/3)
- These New Yorkers Want to Stop Landlords from Using Facial Recognition, Gizmodo (5/3)
- EPIC to NY City Council: Pass Bills Banning Facial Recognition in Businesses and Housing, EPIC (5/3)
Federal Updates
- Widespread Newborn DNA Sequencing Will Worsen Risks to Genetic Privacy, ACLU (4/19)
- Recommendations in Response to the Assessment of and Revisions to the Anti-Discrimination Reversing Trend, 2022 Saw Small Uptick in National Security Surveillance in U.S., NYTimes (4/28)
- Congress’ anger at FBI shapes surveillance program’s future, Waco Tribune-Herald (5/2)
- Rights groups criticise announcement on facial recognition technology at coronation events, The Justice Gap (5/5)
General News Updates
- The Use of AI in Law Enforcement: Balancing Public Safety and Civil Liberties, TS2 Space (5/1)
- The War on Terror Has Not Waned. It’s Used Against Black and Brown Communities., Truthout (5/7)
- What to Do If the Police Ask for Your Security Camera or Video Doorbell Recordings, Consumer Reports (5/2)
- Approaches to Regulating Government Use of Facial Recognition Technology, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology (5/4)
Global Updates
- Facial Recognition Powers ‘Automated Apartheid’ in Israel, Report Says, NY Times (5/1)
- State surveillance deepens as Met police announce the use of facial recognition at the coronation, The Canary (5/5)
- Iran Resorts to Security Cameras, Ostracism to Deter Unveiled Women, Reuters (5/2)
- Rights groups criticise announcement on facial recognition technology at coronation events, The Justice Gap (5/5)
People and Events to Note
- No Ethics in Big Tech: Comedy Night | March 20th | RSVP
- Privacy Law Scholars Conference | June 1-2 | Conference Website
- More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech by Meredith Broussard out now