The Measure and Mismeasure of Fairness with Sharad Goel - #363

Policing Practices

Sharad Goel explores the intersection of machine learning and policing practices, particularly focusing on stop-and-frisk policies. He highlights a significant finding where 40% of individuals stopped had less than a 1% chance of possessing a weapon, questioning the constitutional threshold for reasonable suspicion 1. This analysis reveals potential biases in police searches, showing that black and Hispanic individuals face lower thresholds for searches compared to white individuals 2.

We estimated that something like 40% of people were being stopped with less than 1% chance of having a weapon on them.

--- Sharad Goel

By focusing on discretionary searches, Goel aims to refine the understanding of bias in policing, separating them from procedural searches that aren't based on specific suspicions 3.

   

Open Policing Project

The Stanford Open Policing Project, spearheaded by Sharad Goel, aggregates data from over 200 million traffic stops to scrutinize police interactions across the U.S. 4. This extensive dataset, publicly available, supports various stakeholders in auditing local policing practices and has already influenced policy changes, such as the LAPD's reduction in stop practices following an analysis by the Los Angeles Times 5.

We've actually released over 200 million traffic stops from across the country.

--- Sharad Goel

The project underscores the challenges of data collection and standardization, requiring significant resources to compile and clean disparate data formats from numerous jurisdictions 6.

   

Threshold Test

Sharad Goel discusses the development of the threshold test, a tool designed to detect discriminatory practices in police searches. This test addresses limitations of the traditional hit rate analysis, which sometimes misleadingly suggests discrimination against white drivers 7. By focusing on the success rate of searches rather than just their frequency, the threshold test offers a more nuanced understanding of discrimination in policing 8.

Let's not look at the rate at which we're searching people. Let's look at the rate at which those actions are successful.

--- Sharad Goel

This approach helps to infer the standard of evidence used in searches, aiming to provide a clearer picture of bias in law enforcement practices.