Technology and the Criminal Justice System
Technology is impacting us everywhere, including in the criminal justice system. Modern tools are being employed to reduce the risk to officers, improve accuracy, make operations more efficient, reduce the risk of bias, and provide information to influence decision-making. The benefits sound pretty great, but sometimes the legal and ethical implications of their use can have a negative impact on civil rights.
The Realm of Technology
What constitutes technology in the criminal justice system? It can be something as simple as dispatch and filing systems to integrated data systems, artificial intelligence to assist with things like report-writing, and even predictive analysis. Some common tools include:
- Surveillance: Closed-circuit television and drones provide evidence in investigations and helps to monitor public areas;
- Facial recognition: Individuals’ faces are matched with criminal data bases;
- Automatic license plate readers: Electronic monitoring keeps track of those on probation and parole.
- Storage on the Cloud: These systems allow for the maximization of resources and provide greater–though not infallible–security for data;
- Digital forensics: Teams can easily access digital information;
- Integration of data: Data is merged across systems to create a central data bank that allows for interagency sharing;
- Predictive analysis tools: Crime patterns, social networks, and geographic patterns are analyzed to predict future issues and support decision making;
- Artificial intelligence: This supports other types of monitoring to highlight unusual behaviors, detect weapons, transcribe interviews, analyze forensic evidence, and make sense of myriad data.
Civil Liberties Concerns
While there is no question as to the benefits of technology to agencies, the potential harms to civil liberties are equally considerable:
- Privacy rights are at issue relating to widespread surveillance (less than half of states require a warrant to use drones);
- Bias with Algorithms: Though unintentional, human bias can be reinforced through AI, which can ultimately result in marginalized groups receiving unwarranted scrutiny and discriminatory risk assessments;
- Transparency: Systems like AI can be quite opaque, making it tough to evaluate decisions or correct errors;
- Training: Many organizations lack the training to properly use and interpret these systems, resulting in errors that impact communities negatively;
- Oversight: Many of these systems come on track before regulations, procedures, and standards are codified, leaving individual departments to interpret uses on their own, which means an uneven outcome that can impact some communities harshly.
Responsible, Ethical Use
The experienced Miami criminal defense attorneys at the Law Office of Julia Kefalinos believe that law enforcement agencies must be guided by strong ethics that preserve the rights of their constituencies as they responsibly shift to the use of various technologies in law enforcement. Errors at this point are too common and must be hastily discovered and remedied. If technology misuse or mistakes have stepped on your Constitutional rights, we can fight back. To discuss, schedule a confidential consultation in our Miami office today.
