State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Cities Should Improve Their Algorithms, Not Abandon Technology

Government Technology: As data-driven algorithms have come to play an increasingly important role in the ways governments make decisions, concern over what goes into these algorithms and what comes out has become more urgent. Using data to inform government decisions promises to improve efficiency and impartiality, but many fear that in reality, these tools fail to deliver on their potential. Many advocates argue that by using data tainted by historically prejudiced practices or by reflecting the (often unconscious) biases of mostly-white, mostly-male developers, algorithms will spit out results that discriminate against people of color, religious minorities, women, and other groups. These concerns gained significant traction following a 2016 article by ProPublica that analyzed racial disparities in the predictions made by COMPAS, a tool that creates risk scores to help assign bond amounts in Broward County, FL.

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