The problem with LAPD's predictive policing

The Los Angeles Police Department embraced predictive policing in 2015, but it has taken until now for the department's assortment of once-shadowy data-based operations to be thoroughly vetted in public. In the end, that's the essential problem to be solved -- the lack of transparency and public accountability in deploying crime-targeting tools that could so easily be misused to oppress rather than protect neighborhoods already struggling with both crime and heavy-handed policing. It took years of work by activists to bring programs like LASER (a data-crunching operation that identifies crime hot spots) and PredPol (a software program that predicts property crimes) into the light of day, and they are to be commended; but they are off base in their demands that police scrap the tools entirely. Data, used properly, can enhance public safety. Police should be encouraged to use it, as long as they are open about what they are doing, and as long as they heed legitimate criticism and adjust their programs accordingly.