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A running, sourced timeline of how license-plate readers, body cams and AI policing tools are actually going — and what the failures cost taxpayers.

Timeline / entry

· Los Angeles, CA

LAPD inspector general audit finds predictive-policing programs unmeasurable; PredPol later discontinued

On March 8, 2019 the LAPD Office of the Inspector General released an audit of the department’s data-driven policing programs — PredPol, Operation LASER and the ELUCD survey platform — and presented it to the Police Commission on March 12. The audit found significant inconsistencies in how individuals were selected and retained in LASER’s chronic-offender program, found the programs lacked oversight and often strayed from stated goals, and concluded there was insufficient data to determine whether PredPol reduced crime; the department had used PredPol for roughly eight years. LAPD suspended its Chronic Offender program and database in August 2018 without announcing it. A memo dated April 15, 2020 said the department would discontinue PredPol immediately, citing the pandemic-driven freeze on new contracts.

Also in Los Angeles, CA

3 entries over 7 yr 4 mo, oldest first. The gap is the time since the previous one.

  1. LAPD inspector general audit finds predictive-policing programs unmeasurable; PredPol later discontinued this entry
  2. +7 yr 4 moLAPD OIG finds 161 false license plate alerts, recommends suspending new ALPR cameras
  3. +1 dayLAPD audit finds one in three Flock stolen-vehicle alerts wrong; city lets contract lapse

Sources

  1. Intradepartmental Correspondence, March 8, 2019, BPC #19-0072 (OIG audit of data-driven policing) — Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, Mar 8, 2019 (lapdpolicecom.lacity.org)
  2. Audit Finds LAPD Predictive Policing Programs Lack Oversight — Courthouse News Service, Mar 8, 2019 (courthousenews.com)
  3. Eight years in, LAPD can't measure PredPol's effect on crime — MuckRock, Mar 12, 2019 (muckrock.com)
  4. LAPD's Failed Predictive Policing Program The Latest COVID-19 Victim — Techdirt, Apr 28, 2020 (techdirt.com)
  5. LAPD's data-driven policing programs lack oversight, audit finds — Los Angeles Times, Jul 3, 2019 (latimes.com)

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