美国国家公共电台 NPR How Data Analysis Is Driving Policing

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

We live in an age of big data as our daily decisions are increasingly steered¹ by computers. This week on All Tech Considered, we learn how the police are catching² up with the rest of us.

(SOUNDBITE OF ULRICH SCHNAUSS' "NOTHING HAPPENS IN JUNE")

CORNISH: Big police departments are relying more and more on data to decide where to patrol and even whom to keep a close eye on. But as NPR's Martin Kaste reports from Los Angeles, some people worry that data-driven policing is just a high-tech³ cover for old-fashioned profiling.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So we have the name Joseph.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE⁴: You probably already assumed that the police could do this kind of search - type in someone's name and see what pops up.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It's linking it to a residence, you know, user of this phone number, associated with this vehicle, works in that address.

KASTE: But actually, this is kind of revolutionary. TV cops do this all the time of course. But in real life, police information systems are often clunky with different kinds of information kept in separate silos. Cops spend hours logging into the different systems, printing stuff out, collating⁵ it all by hand. But lately, some bigger departments have finally set up internal search systems that can combine all this in one place, on one screen. And the Los Angeles Police Department is one of them.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hollywood.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hollywood's on.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Thank you. Wilshire.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Wilshire's on.

KASTE: When you listen to the daily crime conference call here, the effect of these new data tools is obvious. The crime stats are up-to-the-minute, tracked and mapped in granular fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: So Hollywood - so I see yesterday we have one robbery, three burglary for motor vehicles. So what's going on?

KASTE: You probably remember CompStat. That was the crime tracking system pioneered in New York in the 1990s. But this is much faster. Instead of looking at last week's statistics, LAPD is analyzing⁶ crime trends within hours and responding almost as quickly. It's an ever-shrinking feedback loop that directly affects the assignments of cops on the street like Jennifer Ramirez.

JENNIFER RAMIREZ: So basically this is what we get on a daily basis. And we take out a mission sheet.

KASTE: Ramirez patrols in the department's Olympic division, which includes Koreatown. The mission sheet she mentioned is generated by her captain and lieutenant⁷ using a variety of software tools. And it includes detailed⁸ maps of problem areas that the LAPD calls LASER zones.

RAMIREZ: I want to make sure that I try and spend as much time in this area of my free time because these are the hot spots. These are where the crimes will tend to happen.

KASTE: And this system isn't just putting officers at certain places. It's also pointing them at certain people. Ramirez's mission sheet also comes with names and photos.

RAMIREZ: These are people that we are going to be looking out for in the area who have been our chronic⁹ offenders¹⁰.

KASTE: Chronic offenders - this may be the most sensitive aspect of the LAPD's recent data analytics push. Each of these LASER zones comes with a list of the top people that the cops are supposed to watch for. Membership on this list is determined¹¹ by a formula that draws on data about past interactions with the justice system. The cops are supposed to try to interact with these people as much as possible sort of as a warning to stay out of trouble. But to Anthony Robles, it all sounds way too familiar.

ANTHONY ROBLES: They're just reinventing their surveillance techniques and machinery¹².

KASTE: Robles is an organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition¹³. It's an activist¹⁴ group run by people who've been incarcerated¹⁵. He was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit¹⁶ against the LAPD's long-standing gang injunction system which relied on lists of people that the police categorized as gang affiliates¹⁷. He recalls what it was like for him as a teenager when he was on that gang list.

ROBLES: Every time I drove by to that block or drove anywhere, I'd get pulled over. A lot of times they would search my car. They wouldn't find anything, and then they would just give me, like, a moving violation¹⁸ ticket. It led to a lot of anger. It made me want to go do something bad.

KASTE: This gang list system now seems to be on its way out, but Robles thinks it's being replaced by the Chronic Offenders Bulletin and the LASER zones and the other data analysis tools. And Jamie Garcia agrees. She's with an activist group called the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which sued to get more details about how the department is using data.

JAMIE GARCIA: These programs are nothing new in the history of policing. What they're trying to call science is really pseudoscience. The bias¹⁹ is still very much inherent in the data that's being used, and the same communities are being impacted.

KASTE: For instance, she says the formula for determining whether someone's on the Chronic Offenders Bulletin is based partly on how often someone is interviewed by the police. But that's something that's simply more likely to happen in those places with heavier police presence. To her, it's just a vicious cycle with a high-tech veneer²⁰. But inside the LAPD, the brass²¹ are pleased with the new data tools.

DENNIS KATO: It works.

KASTE: Dennis Kato is a deputy chief who's been tasked with helping²² to roll out these new analytics systems to all of this sprawling²³ department's divisions by 2020. He says what people have to remember is that compared to a generation ago, crime in this city is much lower.

KATO: But you know what - so is our arrest numbers. So that's a good thing - right? - because that means we're arresting the right people. We're not out there saturating²⁴. We're not just picking up people for everything.

KASTE: At the same time, Kato says police do need to be careful as they get more, as he puts it, creative with the data.

KATO: We've got to figure out, what is the boundaries? How much is good data? And what is the input²⁵ mechanisms²⁶? And all of that's happening. We question this stuff all the time.

CORNISH: And Martin joins us now to talk a little more about how police are using data. And, Martin, just start with a clarification here. Is the LAPD getting new kinds of data?

KASTE: It's not really new data, Audie. What we're talking about here is a new way to access the data they already have in about 19 databases. They say this is all just information in government-created databases like licenses²⁸ and arrest records, that kind of thing. What they're doing, though, is - you know, these things are in silos. They're separate. They have some software by a company called Palantir that lets them sort of search across it and look for relationships. Now, this is not unique.

Palantir gets a lot of press because there's a lot of sort of suspicions about their contracts with the federal government, with national security contracts. But really other software can do the same kind of thing. It's called sort of relational databases. But really what we're talking about here is just speed and ease of searching across a lot of different kinds of data.

CORNISH: Besides the concerns we heard in this story about profiling certain people or neighborhoods, are there broader concerns just about privacy?

KASTE: Yeah, there may be. I mean, as I said, this is easier now to look at different kinds of data, a lot less time logging into different things. And where there's ease there's temptation to abuse it. In California, there's been some discussion about incidences of police officers inappropriately getting into something called the C-L-E-T-S or CLETS database, which is DMV information. There's been some pressure on them to police that better, so to speak. And so you can imagine if an officer has access to a computer where he can sit down and just search a lot of stuff all at once with one screen, yeah, there might be some temptations.

CORNISH: And is there a limit at least on how long they can hold onto all this information?

KASTE: Well, there are some practical considerations involving storage. One example here is the license²⁷ plate reader data. You probably know about license plate readers in cars. As the squad²⁹ cars drive around, they're just gathering³⁰ up all the license plates that they spot. It gets stored. You can recreate on a map where a car has been.

It turns out they're keeping that indefinitely. You know, if it bugs³¹ you that someone in the LAPD could reconstruct where you've driven over the last few years, I just talked to Deputy Chief Kato, who's in this story, about that. He says it looks like they have yet to delete any of that data. So going back to when they first started doing that, they could probably reconstruct where a car in LA has been.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Martin Kaste. Martin, thanks for your reporting.

KASTE: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF EVIDENCE'S "DARKER CLOUDS (INSTRUMENTAL)")

1 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

3 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 collating   

v.校对( collate的现在分词 )；整理；核对；整理（文件或书等）

参考例句：

• An invalid collating element was specified in a [[. name. ]] block. 块中指定了非法的对照元素。 来自互联网
• Selected collating sequence not supported by the operating system. 操作系统不支持选择的排序序列。 来自互联网

6 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

7 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

10 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

11 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

12 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

13 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

14 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

15 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

16 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

17 affiliates   

附属企业( affiliate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She affiliates with an academic society. 她是某学术团体的成员。
• For example, these security affiliates participated in the floating of 19,000,000,000 of issues in 1927. 例如，这些证券发行机构在1927年的流通证券中，就提供了一百九十亿美元的证券。

18 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

19 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

20 veneer   

n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰

参考例句：

• For the first time her veneer of politeness began to crack.她温文尔雅的外表第一次露出破绽。
• The panel had a veneer of gold and ivory.这木板上面镶饰了一层金和象牙。

21 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

22 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

23 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

24 saturating   

浸湿，浸透( saturate的现在分词 )； 使…大量吸收或充满某物

参考例句：

• In the last days before the vote, both sides are saturating the airwaves. 选举前最后几天，竞选双方占用了所有的广播电台和电视台。
• A saturating rain was expected to end the drought. 只盼下场透雨，解除旱情。

25 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

26 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

28 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

29 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

30 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

31 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》