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Chicago will discontinue its use of ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology. Mayor Brandon Johnson announced that the city would not renew its contract, following a review by the Cook County State’s Attorney that found the tool was ineffective in reducing crime, leading to arrests in 1% of 12,000 incidents. Mayor Johnson campaigned on ending the city’s contract with ShotSpotter and community members protested the contract renewal because of the harm it causes to Black and brown communities.

How misleading face recognition test scores can lead policymakers astray. While testing of face recognition systems for accuracy across demographics is important, “the tests do not take full account of practical realities” and “no laboratory test [represents] the conditions and reality of how police use face recognition in real-world scenarios.” For example, testing labs do not have access to the exact “matching database” that a specific police department uses, nor can account for the range of low-quality images that police feed into the systems.