“It’s Just Math is a 30 min experimental documentary that deals with predictive policing and its impact on everyday life of Black and People of Color (BPoC) in L.A. The film shows how so called Dirty Data are created through discriminatory policing practices and how the usage of this data within predictive policing software affects BPoC.
The main goal of the LAPD is to prevent crime with the use of data mining. But the predictions are only as good as the data that are fed into the algorithms which try to predict future crime patterns.
The police officer Tom B. explains his take on the predictive policing technology Gotham by the company Palantir. In his view Operation LASER (the LAPD’s strategy to prevent future crime) reduces upcoming criminal activities by analyzing past data and surveilling so called Chronic Offenders — people who are seen as the biggest risk factors.
Larry S. has had difficult experiences with the police even before this program started. He lives in an overpoliced neighborhood and has multiple unlawful police contacts on a regular basis that fail to have reasonable suspicion. He describes a police encounter that leads to an unjustified placement on the Californian Gang Database (CalGang). After that Larry receives a letter from the LAPD that states the reasons — none of which are true or justified with evidence.
Watch the trailer below
Like Larry S. Bryan A. is a long time resident in an overpoliced area and affected by discriminatory policing strategies. Bryan shares his story of being unlawfully included in CalGang some time after a police stop. He also describes how his cousin is arrested just because he was seen with a known gang member who happens to be a friend of his.
The local activist Jamie G. shines a light on the architecture of Operation LASER. She talks about how it’s made possible to create discriminatory dirty data that are manipulated by the LAPD and affect minorities from low-income neighborhoods. This role is based on the founder of the Stop LAPD Spying coalition from L.A. who successfully filed a lawsuit against the LAPD LASER program.
The former Palantir analyst and now whistleblower Kieran J. further reflects the LAPD’s concept and its logic of fighting crime that has not happened yet with data from the past which are mainly produced by the police. He guides through real LAPD documents that have been leaked. These reveal how the police create lists of high-risk-subjects — so called Chronic Offender Bulletins‘ — and also apply risk scores to people without a criminal record.
This is the only fictional character in the film that is not based on interviews or public statements.
The video images of the film were produced with a modified version of the game engine of Grand Theft Auto V. With this approach 'It’s Just Math' doesn’t just touch on stereotypes incorporated in the game but also bypasses viewing habits of the audience. At the same time the film blurs the lines between conventional documentary formats, game and film.”
(Mathias Wolff)
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