Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed • Hacker News Board

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#31

Post by jwestbury » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

tjpnz wrote: post #7

>Areas with more police vehicle images included wealthy commercial zones and low-income neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black and Latino residents. Does this really surprise anyone? Lower income areas have more crime. I don't understand why race is a factor here.

Because even after controlling for income, American police still disproportionately mistreat Black people.

I'm struggling to find the data right now, but I believe the source was Phillip Atiba Goff. The tl;dr is that Black people are treated violently by police at a rate of several times that of white people, even once you control for socioeconomic status.

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#32

Post by judge2020 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:48 PM UTC

kevincox wrote: post #11

tiernano wrote: post #3

On a different but similar idea, I had the idea of using dashcam footage to read petrol station (gas stations for you lot over the pond) signs and get info about pricing for fuel. You could reduce the amount of processing required by only looking for pricing info near a station based on gps. My blackview dashcam stores the video along with gps on a microsd card and it can be accessed using a http connection when on w…

At least in Canada gas prices are available in Google Maps. IDK where this data comes from but I wonder if it is publicly available (or at least can be scraped from Google). It isn't 100% reliable but is very good, maybe 95% accurate?

Circa 2010 GasBuddy[0] was a pretty novel app for smartphones that allowed crowd-sourcing gas prices around you.

I imagine OPIS[1] (now owned by News Corp), who acquired GasBuddy, or one of the other Price Reporting Agencies, is providing Google with this gas price information.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GasBuddy

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Price_Information_Service

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#33

Post by the_doctah » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:48 PM UTC

This is the kind of "policing is racist" kind of propaganda that has San Francisco in it's current "hands off" state. Does anyone prefer that in every city everywhere?

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#34

Post by PaulHoule » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #5

Next logical step: Police departments park disused cars overnight in rich neighbourhoods so the stats don't show they are 'targeting' poor areas disproportionately...

If I was worried about people speeding in my neighborhood I would find some Crown Vic or other common vehicle used as a police car that doesn't pass inspection (maybe even a blown engine) and leave it parked by my house. If it is a real used police car all the better.

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#35

Post by throwaway743 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

tjpnz wrote: post #7

>Areas with more police vehicle images included wealthy commercial zones and low-income neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black and Latino residents. Does this really surprise anyone? Lower income areas have more crime. I don't understand why race is a factor here.

> Deployment disparities, the researchers wrote, can result in downstream biases like increased arrests: A neighborhood that’s more heavily policed than another might not necessarily have more crime, just more people arrested for it.

The discussion section of the paper also speaks to higher police presence being correlated with areas that are being gentrified.

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#36

Post by sandworm101 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

dmoy wrote: post #8

Remember that the federal government is still of the opinion that NYPD is disproportionately targeting black people with its stop and frisk policy, today . That is, almost a decade after it was ruled unconstitutional in federal court. (Edit: "it" being stop & frisk as a whole, not just the targeting of minorities)

There is certainly a growing disconnect between federal court decisions and on-the-ground reality. This disconnect is a recognized problem. Courts are no longer respected as they once were. Many people just dismiss federal courts as political theater. And elected officials often make their reputations by defying courts, or at least pretending so to do, which trickles down to individual employees not respecting judicial decisions.

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#37

Post by TeeMassive » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

dmoy wrote: post #8

Remember that the federal government is still of the opinion that NYPD is disproportionately targeting black people with its stop and frisk policy, today . That is, almost a decade after it was ruled unconstitutional in federal court. (Edit: "it" being stop & frisk as a whole, not just the targeting of minorities)

The big question is it because of their race or is it coincidental with the higher crime rate?

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#38

Post by ambicapter » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:51 PM UTC

protonbob wrote: post #17

dr_petes wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that those areas have more crime because they have a disproportionate amount of cops to observe crime.

And that would be a poor argument. Common sense would say otherwise.

How is it a poor argument? If a crime is committed but there's no relevant reporter to observe it, it won't get counted as "crime", correct?

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#39

Post by verteu » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:51 PM UTC

dr_petes wrote: post #13

tjpnz wrote: post #7

>Areas with more police vehicle images included wealthy commercial zones and low-income neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black and Latino residents. Does this really surprise anyone? Lower income areas have more crime. I don't understand why race is a factor here.

You could argue that those areas have more crime because they have a disproportionate amount of cops to observe crime.

They have a much higher murder rate too. Murder is not caused by "cops observing crime."

Re: Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed

#40

Post by IE6 » Mon, Jul 10, 2023, 2:51 PM UTC

protonbob wrote: post #17

dr_petes wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that those areas have more crime because they have a disproportionate amount of cops to observe crime.

And that would be a poor argument. Common sense would say otherwise.

I think it also depends on your definition of crime or the type of crime that is being committed as outside of the scope of truly violent crimes or crime where there is a clear victim there are a lot of crimes that really should not be a crime in the first place (like possession of certain plants) and there may be many instances of truly victimless crimes that would go "uncaught" and thus untracked if an authority figure was not observing them.