zlacker

>>pseudo+(OP)
There is no question that the advancement of science has been good for humanity as a whole.

Using math to improve the effectiveness of the police is a good thing. This effort - however well intended maybe - would throw out the baby with the bathwater.

>>raarts+0i
Using math to improve the effectiveness of police is not necessarily a good thing, because this kind of works really works to perpetuate proactive policing and over-policing, as well as encodes bias.

>>sudosy+ui
It depends on what your implicit model of policing is. I think the real issue is that most police departments in the US are commonly dual-tasked with providing violent crime prevention _and_ front line social services.

In this setting, it's less clear which "side of the force" is most impacted by the scientific input, but I think it might be reckless to simply cut them off without finding a better model for providing some of their more critical social services. In particular drug, mental health and domestic abuse interventions which sadly seems to be a very large portion of their workload.