Tag: Bias

Sacramento using virtual reality training to improve policing, confront bias

by  on  in Technology Consultant

The technology will focus on de-escalation techniques, critical decision-making and peer intervention training.

The police department of Sacramento, California is adding virtual reality to its training to enhance cultural competency and implicit bias training. The technology will focus on de-escalation techniques, critical decision-making and peer intervention training.

“When people say ‘defund the police’ because we have racism in our past, first of all, we have to acknowledge that’s absolutely true,” Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn told CNN. “But the way to get beyond it is to talk about it and do something about it… With equipment and training and to

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Coded Bias review: Eye-opening Netflix doc faces racist technology

by  on  in Techology Advancement

coded-bias-13-joyalgorithms

Scientist and campaigner Joy Buolamwini faces the consequences of racially biased algorithms.


7th Empire Media

When exactly did computers start making decisions about our health care, our jobs, our access to opportunities, even whether we can walk down the street without being arrested? Insightful documentary Coded Bias, streaming on Netflix from April 5, chillingly reveals how much power technology already holds over us. But it also introduces a generation of campaigners fighting this overreaching tech that’s shaped by our worst human failings.  

The story begins with Joy Buolamwini. We meet this infectiously curious Canada-born and Mississippi-raised computer scientist sporting

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California police partnerships with Amazon Ring raise alarms about racial bias, privacy

by  on  in Techology Advancement

As nationwide protests force a deep examination of police tactics and funding, technology companies say they are re-evaluating their relationship with law enforcement as well. Amazon has halted police use of its facial recognition technology for one year and the website Nextdoor has stopped forwarding tips to police.

Now, privacy groups and activists are scrutinizing the relationships between Amazon and local police departments that allow law enforcement to request access to video recordings from doorbell cameras installed in private homes.

Amazon’s expanding network of law enforcement “partners” for its Neighbors app remains intact, an arrangement that critics say is designed

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Detroit police challenged over face recognition flaws, bias

by  on  in Technology Development

A Black man who says he was unjustly arrested because facial recognition technology mistakenly identified him as a suspected shoplifter is calling for a public apology from Detroit police. And for the department to abandon its use of the controversial technology.

The complaint by Robert Williams is a rare challenge from someone who not only experienced an erroneous face recognition hit, but was able to discover that it was responsible for his subsequent legal troubles.

The Wednesday complaint filed on Williams’ behalf alleges that his Michigan driver license photo — kept in a statewide image repository — was incorrectly flagged

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How High-Tech Surveillance Amplifies Police Bias

by  on  in Technology Evolution

Click here to read the full article.

Video of police in riot gear clashing with unarmed protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filled social media feeds. Meanwhile, police surveillance of protesters has remained largely out of sight.

Local, state and federal law enforcement organizations use an array of surveillance technologies to identify and track protesters, from facial recognition to military-grade drones.

Police use of these national security-style surveillance techniques – justified as cost-effective techniques that avoid human bias and error – has grown hand-in-hand with the increased militarization of

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