A powerful Silicon Valley startup has been working with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to test a controversial system that can predict where crimes are most likely to occur and which people are most likely to commit them.
That’s according to a recent investigation by the Verge which uncovered that Palantir Technologies, a big data analytics firm that’s backed by the CIA’s venture capital arm, formed a partnership with the NOPD in 2012.
Palantir’s predictive policing tool was being tested without the knowledge of many local government officials or even the residents of New Orleans.
Palantir Technologies licensed its predictive policing system to the New Orleans Police Department beginning in 2012, the Verge reports. The system has raised privacy concerns. File photo
Experts say the shadowy agreement raises concerns about individuals’ privacy.
They’re also concerned that the systems could potentially nefarious consequences, such as racial profiling.
Predictive policing systems ingest large amounts of data and uses sophisticated algorithms to form patterns and conclusions.
In the case of Palantir’s program with the NOPD, it traced people’s ties to other gang members, outlined criminal histories, analyzed social media and predicted the likelihood that individuals would commit violence or become a victim, according to the Verge.
The system was used to identify members of New Orleans gangs like 3NG and 39ers. However, there was no mention of the use of Palantir’s predictive policing systems during any of the defendants’ criminal trials.
Palantir was also given free access to the NOPD’s LexisNexis account, which has millions of public records, including court filings, names, addresses, licenses and phone numbers, among other things.
The firm also received access to city criminal and non-criminal data that was used to train its software for crime forecasting, the Verge noted.
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp (left) met with President Donald Trump at his tech CEO roundtable in 2016. Peter Thiel (right), one of Trump’s advisers, is the chairman of Palantir
And, several key city council members whose job it is to oversee these kinds of public records were not informed of the NOPD’s partnership with Palantir.
Since its inception in 2012, the partnership has been extended three times. The latest contract was set to expire on February 21.
Jason Williams, president of the New Orleans City Council told the Verge that he wasn’t aware of the program.
‘My primary concern would be how this was used in my city,’ Williams explained.
‘If it was used to identify marginalized people that are at risk of being harmed, to stop them from being harmed, I’m going to have a whole different appreciation of that than I’m gonna have if this system was used nefariously,’ he added.
Palantir’s program with the NOPD was able to float under the radar because it was established as a ‘philanthropic relationship’ by working with the mayor’s New Orleans For Life program.
The firm has a record of establishing contracts with local police departments via associated non-profits, the Verge said, which effectively shields the relationships from the public eye.
WHAT ARE PREDICTIVE POLICING SYSTEMS?
Predictive policing systems can forecast when and where crimes occur using based on prior crime reports and other data.
Palantir Technologies has licensed its predictive policing software with local and international governments.
Most ingest vast amounts of data, including geography, criminal records, the weather and social media records.
From that, it makes predictions about individuals or places that are likely to be involved in a crime, according to the Verge.
There are other predictive policing systems out there that are being utilized, many of them are different.
The Los Angeles Police Department, New York Police Department, Chicago Police Department and, now, the New Orleans Police Department use predictive policing. File photo
Chicago’s police department uses a notorious ‘heat list,’ which is an algorithm-generated list that singles out people who are most likely to be involved in a shooting.
However, many experts have identified issues with Chicago’s heat list.
The government-funded RAND Corporation published a report saying that the heat list wasn’t nearly as effective as a standard wanted list.
It could also encourage a new form of profiling that draws unnecessary police attention to people.
Another academic study found that the heat list can have a ‘disparate impact’ on poor communities of color.
A California startup called PredPol also built predictive policing software that’s been utilized by law enforcement officials, including the LAPD.
In 2016, researchers conducted a study where they reverse engineered PredPol’s algorithm and discovered that it replicated systemic bias against communities of color that were over policed.
It also found that historic data isn’t a good indicator of future criminal activity.
The NYPD also had an agreement with Palantir Technologies to use its predictive policing systems.
Palantir’s partnership with the NOPD was brokered via James Carville, a former political strategist for Hillary Clinton.
Carville claims that Palantir’s predictive policing system was a major driver in New Orleans’ two-year decline in the murder rate.
Carville’s wife, Mary Matalin, acknowledged on a radio show in 2014 that Palantir’s technology could incriminate certain people.
‘[New Orleans is] kind of a prototype,’ Matali said, according to the Verge.
‘Unless you’re the cousin of some drug dealer that went bad, you’re going to be okay,’ she added.
Law enforcement experts say they’re concerned that civil liberties will be threatened by Palantir’s technology.
‘They’re creating a target list, but we’re not going after Al Qaeda in Syria,’ a former law enforcement agent told the Verge.
‘Palantir is a great example of an absolutely ridiculous amount of money spent on a tech tool that may have some application’
Security and privacy experts have warned against infusing AI and robots into policing. Pictured is a police robot, which is used in China to scan people’s faces for escaped criminals
Pictured, the world’s first operational police robot stands in downtown Dubai. Security experts are concerned that systems like robot police or predictive policing might exhibit racial bias
‘However, it’s not the right tool for local and state law enforcement,’ the person added.
Some experts also noted that using historical data to predict future crimes, like Palantir does, is considered to be a flawed system.
Despite this, Palantir’s business has continued to grow in scale and profits.
Palantir is now considered a decacorn, with a sprawling valuation of at least $20 billion.
It’s also a part of the top ten most highly-valued unicorns in the U.S., according to CB Insights.
It’s backed by the CIA’s venture capital arm and counts Peter Thiel, a billionaire mogul and adviser to President Donald Trump, as its chairman.
Palantir has worked with the Pentagon since 2009 to predict the location of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Verge noted.
The firm has patented at least one crime forecasting system and has sold similar systems to foreign intelligence services.