New York Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden released a letter to the United States Justice Department (DOJ), urging them to indefinitely halt federal funding for a software that claims to predict where crimes will occur.
The letter — which was co-signed by senators representing Oregon, California, and Vermont, among others — called upon the department to cut funding for the predictive policing system until it’s proven to be non-discriminatory and meets stringent accuracy standards.
In the letter, the lawmakers highlighted the software’s issue of over-predicting crime in Black and Latino neighborhoods due to “flawed assumptions” and “simplistic models.”
Because of the underscored problems, the legislators asked the DOJ to release an analysis of the accuracy and risks posed by predictive policing systems, along with details regarding how much grant money is being spent on it.
“Mounting evidence indicates that predictive policing technologies do not reduce crime. Instead, they worsen the unequal treatment of Americans of color by law enforcement,” wrote the officials in the letter.
“The continued use of such systems creates a dangerous feedback loop: biased predictions are used to justify disproportionate stops and arrests in minority neighborhoods, which further biases statistics on where crimes are happening.”
This latest letter comes following another one that was sent to the DOJ by Clarke and Wyden back in 2021.
In that letter, the pair of officials reportedly sought information on predictive policing systems, only to receive a response from the Justice Department almost a year later, in which they failed to answer the majority of the questions brought about, according to a release.
