Reformist institutions are where police and their mainstream critics seek common ground. Reformism is especially dangerous when applied to practices such as “data-driven” policing because it strengthens the state’s ability to claim objectivity in its violence. For a decade, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition has worked to end data-driven policing in Los Angeles, especially the algorithmic systems that mine mass surveillance data to target people and places for increased policing. Our work against these programs has confronted not only the police agencies that wield deadly data systems but also the reformist institutions that police work with to sanitize their violence.

AI Now Institute. A new AI lexicon: Surveillance. Medium. https://medium.com/a-new-ai-lexicon/a-new-ai-lexicon-surveillance-8a4231ef8359