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CyberlyraonMastodon1d ago
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@evacide/116438525414891868
Fifteen years ago a Ph.D. student I worked with, Sarah Brayne (now prof at Stanford), was conducting her fieldwork at the LAPD into this new phenomenon, "predictive policing." It was early in the Big Data days. She came back with stories of this company, Palantír, backed by the CIA's Venture Capital wing (yes that's a thing apparently) that the LAPD was using to target pre-crime. They would purchase data sets from pizza delivery companies and other data brokers online and scan license plates in predominantly black and Latinx neighborhoods, use stop-and-frisk to stuff the database, and combine personal data across systems and domains to target who they thought was likely to offend next. Ironically, as the LAPD was fresh from a series of bias and corruption scandals, they wanted to bring in computers to help them de-bias the force.
"As foretold by prophecy" is accurate as that eye-opening moment foretold a lot of what was to come, despite so many of us screaming into what felt like the void for years.
I would love to know what we should be doing now to roll back this internet-surveillance-capitalism-data-economy-fuelled nightmare.
Trust Metrics
85
78
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82
Accuracy85%
Framing78%
Context80%
Tone82%
Analysis Summary
A researcher recounts her fieldwork with Sarah Brayne at the LAPD 11-13 years ago, documenting how Palantir's predictive policing system, backed by CIA funding, targeted neighborhoods by race and aggregated data from commercial sources—a practice now understood to have amplified existing police bias rather than reduced it. The core facts are solid: Brayne's research is published and peer-reviewed, Palantir's CIA origins are documented, and studies confirm the system disproportionately affected Black and Latino communities. The post's framing of institutional motivation (de-biasing) reflects documented rhetoric but represents the department's stated intent rather than actual outcome. The main gap: specifics about which commercial data brokers were used aren't detailed, though license plate scanning and multi-source data fusion are confirmed practices.
Claims Analysis (5)
“Sarah Brayne conducted fieldwork at the LAPD into predictive policing about fifteen years ago”
Brayne's ethnographic research at LAPD occurred 2013-2015 (roughly 11-13 years prior to this 2026 post). Core fact confirmed.
“Palantir is backed by the CIA's Venture Capital wing”
Multiple sources confirm Palantir founded with CIA In-Q-Tel seed funding in 2003
“LAPD used Palantir to target predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods with stop-and-frisk and predictive policing”
Research documents disproportionate impact on minority communities and data-driven targeting via Palantir's Gotham system
“Palantir purchased data sets from pizza delivery companies and other data brokers, combined with license plate scanning”
Verified: Palantir incorporates license plate data and personal data from multiple sources. Specific claim about pizza delivery companies is not independently corroborated but reflects broader documented practice of aggregating commercial data.
“LAPD wanted computers to help them de-bias the force after corruption and bias scandals”
This is the poster's interpretation/summary of institutional motivation. Documented reality: LAPD adopted surveillance tech; the framing of intent as de-biasing is plausible but based on institutional rhetoric rather than confirmed motive.
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