Comment by polartx
5 months ago
The weakest link of the proposed technology like this is guaranteed fallibility of the folks using it, ie the judicial system and the asymmetric power dynamic against those it supposedly serves.
This is a very common scenario: a sheriffs deputy holds a biased belief against an individual. Said deputy selects and overfits data from systems like this to obtain a warrant against said individual. Individual is arrested and enters the meat grinder that is the justice system where hundreds of experienced indifferent agents and millions of dollars are put to work to support that deputies biased accusation. That original bad actor can now disengage and go about their life. Meanwhile, our Individual must spend a fortune on legal defense to prove their innocence. Individual loses time, money, peace, and reputation pursuing the best case realistic scenario—having charges dismissed (though indefinitely tainting their record). The more realistic scenario is individual is unjustly punished to some degree through plea agreements or trial (if they can afford it) which could easily ruin the rest of their life.
I’m not on the ACAB extreme, I just personally know many law enforcement officers and work in the industry adjacent to the justice system.
> Said deputy selects and overfits data from systems like this to obtain a warrant against said individual.
Or no warrant at all, the chief just wants to stalk his ex: https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article29105...
> A Sedgwick, Kansas, police chief used Flock Safety license plate readers to track his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend’s vehicles 228 times over four-plus months and used his police vehicle to follow them out of town, according to a city official and a report released this week by the agency that oversees police certifications.
> Nygaard’s reasons included “suspicious” and “missing child” and “drug investigation” and “drugs” and “narcotics investigation” and “suspicious activity” and “drug invest” and “drug use,” according to the KSCPOST order.
> Nygaard won’t face any charges, but he did lose his police certification.