threat score
The Police Are Using Computer Algorithms to Tell if You're a Threat
Ferguson is a professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law and the author of The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement. Can a computer predict violence? In Chicago, Illinois, an algorithm rates every person arrested with a numerical threat score from 1 to 500-plus. The process has been going on for four years, and almost 400,000 Chicago citizens now have an official police risk score. This algorithm -- still secret and publicly unaccountable -- shapes policing strategy, the use of force, and threatens to alter suspicion on the streets.