AI profiling: the social and moral hazards of 'predictive' policing

A UK police force which was using an algorithm designed to help it make custody decisions has been forced to alter it amid concerns that it could discriminate against poor people. Durham Constabulary has been developing an algorithm to better predict the risk posed by offenders and to ensure that only the most "suitable" are granted police bail. But the programme has also highlighted potential social inequalities that can be maintained through the use of these big data strategies. This might seem surprising, since an apparent feature of such programmes is that they are apparently neutral: technocratic evaluations of risk based on information that is "value-free" (based on objective calculation, eschewing subjective bias). In practice, the apparent neutrality of the data is questionable.