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
Event Spotlight: How Can Artificial Intelligence Be Used for Good in the Criminal Legal System?
On Wednesday, September 13th the Center hosted a virtual conversation with a team of legal scholars, policy advocates, and computer scientists to explore a new direction for AI-informed decision-making to advocate for justice. View the event recording below!
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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NY Wins Power to Search DNA Bank for Criminals’ Relatives, Bloomberg (10/24/2023)
City and State Updates
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Oregon Police Obsessively Spied on Activists for Years, Even After Pipeline Fight Ended, The Intercept (11/8/2023)
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Legal Aid Successfully Litigates FOIL Request for NYPD Surveillance Contracts, The Legal Aid Society (11/6/2023)
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Gunshot detection technology being debated again in Seattle, MYNorthwest (11/2/2023)
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Set Money Aside for Illegal Surveillance, or Fund Community Needs Now?, The Stranger (10/31/2023)
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Wholly ineffective and pretty obviously racist: Inside New Orleans’ struggle with facial-recognition policing, POLITICO (10/31/2023)
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VICTORY! California Department of Justice Declares Out-of-State Sharing of License Plate Data Unlawful, EFF (10/31/2023)
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Grants from Dept. of Justice helps fund body cameras for KC Sheriff’s Office, Auburn Reporter (10/30/2023)
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New gunshot detection system aids Sparks Police in shootings, but critics fear over policing in minority neighborhoods, News 4 (10/30/2023)
Federal Updates
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Lawmakers Say FBI Can Keep Its Prized Surveillance Tool, but It’ll Need a Warrant, Gizmodo (11/7/2023)
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Request for Written Comments (Submission Deadline: 1/8/2023) Regarding Executive Order on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Safety, The White House
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Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence, Memo, Office of Management and Budget; and Request for Comments (Submission Deadline: 12/05/2023)
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FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, The White House (10/30/2023); and Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, The White House (10/30/2023)
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The Problems Biden’s AI Order Must Address, The Markup (11/1/23)
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Biden’s Executive order on AI Gives Sweeping Mandate to DHS, Just Security (11/1/2023)
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Biden Issues Executive Order to Create A.I. Safeguards, The NYTimes (10/30/2023)
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Visa applicants face AI monitoring of social media by U.S. ICE, ReadWrite (10/27/2023)
General News Updates
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A wrongful arrest. A “racist robot.” A call for new laws, News Channel 21 (11/7/2023)
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Bias in AI puts Black Americans in legal peril, Yahoo News (11/5/2023)
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Unmasking Artificial Intelligence: The Battle for Ethical Innovation and Accountability, Michigan Chronicle (11/5/2023)
Global Updates
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Face instead of passport: Frankfurt Airport first to try biometric check-ins for all, The Mayor (10/30/2023)
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Police urged to double use of facial recognition software, The Guardian (10/28/2023)
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CRISP report underlines fear that UK is heading into a biometric safety vacuum, Biometric Update (10/26/2023)
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Growth stymied on all sides of biometric surveillance firm SenseTime, Biometric Update (10/25/2023)