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:
- Report by Co-Faculty Director Vincent Southerland: The Master's Tools and a Mission: Using Community Control and Oversight Laws to Resist and Abolish Police Surveillance Technology
- 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
Technology and Racial Justice Collaborative Quarterly Newsletter
We are pleased to announce the publication of the first quarterly newsletter of the Technology and Racial Justice Collaborative, a new project of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. TRJC's quarterly newsletter provides feature articles, legislative updates, and news about advocacy addressing algorithmic bias and surveillance in the criminal legal system. Read the first installment of the newsletter here!
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
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Civil Rights Advocates Achieve the Nation's Strongest Police Department Policy on Facial Recognition Technology, ACLU (6/28/24)
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Victory! Grand Jury Finds Sacramento Cops Illegally Shared Driver Data, EFF (6/27/24)
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EPIC, Coalition Amicus: People Retain a Privacy Interest in the Data on Lost Phones, EPIC (63/24)
City and State Updates
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Massachusetts police leaders support ShotSpotter amid criticism, WWLP (7/3/24)
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Detroit changes rules for police use of facial recognition after wrongful arrest of Black man, The Guardian (7/1/24)
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The SFPD's Intended Purchase of a Robot Dog Triggers Board of Supervisors' Oversight Obligations, EFF (7/1/24)
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Genetic Surveillance: The NYPD's Rogue DNA Database, STOP (6/27/24)
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Surveillance technology never left Milwaukee after the DNC, Wisconsin Examiner (6/26/24)
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Vermont Senate Fails to Override Vermont Data Privacy Act Veto, EPIC (6/19/24)
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Seeing is Misbelieving: How Surveillance Technology Distorts Crime Statistics, STOP (6/12/24)
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Rhode Island House Passes Weak "Privacy" Laws, EPIC (6/11/24)
Federal Updates
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Civil Society Letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee Leadership on Privacy Legislation, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (6/25/24)
General News Updates
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Drone As First Responder Programs Are Swarming Across the United States, EFF (6/27/24)
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Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media Laws, EFF (6/26/24)
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Google is testing facial recognition technology for campus security, starting at site near Seattle, CNBC (6/26/24)
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Two Years Post-Dobbs: A Commercial Surveillance Landscape That is Confusing, Complicated, and Harmful to Abortion Seekers, EPIC (6/25/24)
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The Role of Digital Privacy in Ensuring Access to Abortion and Reproductive Health Care in Post-Dobbs America, EPIC (6/13/24)
Global Updates
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Vietnam requires facial recognition for digital payments, Nikkei (7/4/24)
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Now the EU Council Should Finally Understand, No One Wants "Chat Control," EFF (7/1/24)
People and Events to Note
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FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master | MuckRock
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Report: SELLING SURVEILLANCE: FACT VS. AD FICTION | S.T.O.P.
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Report: People on Electronic Monitoring | Vera Institute of Justice
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Upcoming Event: TAKE BACK TECH II | Mijuente, Media Justice
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Upcoming Event: Law Enforcement Use of Predictive Policing Approaches: A Workshop | National Academies of Sciences | June 24-25