From Stealth Mode to Full Transparency — Minneapolis Based SIID™ Technologies Takes on Public Safety and Policing
SIID™ Tech leverages linguistic science, deep learning, and machine learning to offer police agencies and municipality leaders an early-warning intervention tool that enables proactive decision-making saves lives and taxpayer dollars.
Racial and ethnic disparities in law enforcement outcomes continue to be a topic of local and national debate. Here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the MPD is once again at the center of another controversial police killing of an African American male. This time the circumstances involved a “no-knock warrant” which resulted in the death of 22-year-old Amir Locke — the incident is currently under investigation but the public is learning there were a number of errors that occurred in this incident. It is important to understand that these types of warrants are very dangerous for all involved.
Since George Floyd’s murder in 2020, calls for alternative responses — and to defund the police have increased, especially within communities of color. People of color in communities across the country say that they are over-policed for minor infractions or that crisis situations often result in excessive use of force or unnecessary arrests. These perceptions are reflected in a Stanford University and New York University analysis of over 100 million traffic stops across the U.S., and over a period of 10 years — White drivers were searched 1.5 to 2 times less often than Black drivers but were more likely to have drugs, guns or other contraband. Additionally, language from police body camera footage shows a great difference in how officers interacted and communicated with different races.
Through participation in last Fall’s MIT Solve Incubator on Unbundling Policing and Reimagining, our team at SIID™ Technologies identified an opportunity to leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to improve transparency, training, recruiting, and support for officers. Our company aims to leverage linguistic science, deep learning, and machine learning to offer agencies and municipal leaders an early-warning and intervention tool that enables proactive decision-making saves lives and taxpayer dollars.
Because police officers receive special training, a gun, and a badge, the expectation is that they are skilled in handling a number of emergency situations. Skills such as de-escalation, mental health care, as well as the ability to navigate highly stressed situations involving drug use, overdoses, domestic violence, and social services. But the realities are police are not trained to address all the needs of the communities they serve. This lack of training often costs police and community members their lives. A recent analysis of public records from 31 of the 50 U.S. cities, from 2010–2019 and with the highest police-to-civilian ratios in the country showed cities have spent more than $3 billion to settle misconduct lawsuits over the past 10 years. The City of Minneapolis paid the largest police misconduct settlement in history at $27 million for the murder of George Floyd in 2021.
At a press conference held earlier this week on Monday, February 7th — Minneapolis Mayor Frey said, “I’m a believer that reforming a police department requires reforming individuals. And the training individual that you mentioned previously — we need to get the best possible person in there. It’s something that will be subject to quite a bit of review. At the same time, I want to make sure that we’re giving interim Chief [Amelia] Huffman the tools that she needs in the meantime.”
We believe reforming the police should be a collaborative effort between municipalities, police, and the community SIID™ is in no way the be-all or end-all solution. And our software is a positive step towards sustainable action for public safety. As part of the Minneapolis community, we want to help save lives by demonstrating the benefits of leveraging artificial intelligence to improve transparency and provide heads of agencies with early warning of potential risk, recommend forms of training, and inform community conversations and transparency.
SIID™ is a pre-seed, early-stage startup likened to the “Grammarly” for bias. We have experienced great traction over the last year through participation in the Minnesota SBIR/STTR Accelerator, gALPHA Social Impact: Justice Tech, MIT Solve Incubator, and BETA Accelerator.
Want to get involved or help? Here are some things you can do today to support SIID™
- Support Amir Locke’s family
- Share this with your network and on social
- Sign-up for our newsletter
- Join us on Patreon
Other reform efforts to consider supporting:
- Contact your local politicians about ”No-knock” warrant bans in your city
- Support alternative forms of policing like REP
- Support independent journalism like Minnesota Reformer, Sahan Journal, & MinnPost
ABOUT SIID™ TECHNOLOGIES
Social Impact ID (SIID™) Technologies leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to evaluate, uncover and correct the influence of human bias on decision-making and communication. Based in Minneapolis, MN, we offer Software as a Service and Platform as a Service solutions for the communications and public policy sectors. To learn more, visit www.siid.ai.
