What is it about?
This paper describes the ways in which emergency call information becomes 'data' for the predictive policing system in Delhi to explain how societal assumptions and encoded discriminations make it through data that is considered objective and neutral.
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Why is it important?
India is expanding its reach of predictive digital surveillance system without any foresight or discussions into how it could harm already marginalised and discriminated communities. This stems from the belief in technological systems and 'data' as being neutral, scientific or objective indicators of 'truth'. This article breaks down the predictive policing system in Delhi to explain its human-ness.
Perspectives
This study was the first ever ethnographic work done on digital policing efforts in India and it is a massive breakthrough to understand the kinds of societal, bureaucratic assumptions pass through unchecked in these systems and harm those who are already vulnerable. This adds to the already existing literature from around the world that argues against using digital systems especially in policing and criminal justice and makes sure that policy responses adequately understand this dynamic.
Shivangi Narayan
Thapar University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Data in New Delhi's predictive policing system, January 2020, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3351095.3372865.
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