A group of seven Democratic members of Congress has issued a public letter demanding that the Justice Department stop granting funds to predictive policing projects unless it can guarantee the systems will not cause a discriminatory impact. The lawmakers requested a response from the department by 1 March, arguing that the technology fails to reduce crime and exacerbates the unequal treatment of people of colour. The letter references a 2021 investigation by The Markup and Gizmodo, which found that a predictive algorithm developed by the firm Geolitica disproportionately directed police patrols into marginalised communities. Because predictive policing relies on historical data distorted by disproportionate arrests and falsified reports, it tends to over-predict crime in Black and Latino neighbourhoods while under-predicting it in white areas. The lawmakers warned that using these biased predictions to justify increased stops and arrests in minority areas creates a feedback loop that continually skews future crime statistics.

Background: Predictive Policing and Risk Scoring

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