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Last active March 17, 2023 21:44
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Recommended Reading/Bibliography on Predictive Policing/Sorry and Thanks

OK. So I wrote some article about predictive policing. And it had lots of links, and it turns out sometimes editors see your links and are like ¯_(ツ)_/¯ to keeping those links when they publish the article. This is probably in part my own fault because I should have included those links as footnotes, and because working in print vs working online is Different, etc etc--the point is I feel really rotten that lots of really good reporting wasn't given due credit. Putting this list together does not totally fix it but will hopefully help people interested in the topic.

Also: there is a part at the end of this gist that explains my mixed feelings about the piece in general. The citations are probably more important, but if you want to watch me tableflip a little scroll down.



This is hard to say, and it is not an excuse, but merely a fact. The article I wrote was originally much longer and had a lot more relevant case study examples, and I hope was a little more clearly nuanced. While I completely understand the need to fit space in print, I wasn't really expecting the piece I wrote to be edited into essentially a hot take. I was really close to asking to have the story pulled or not published under my own name, but frankly, I never discussed a kill fee and I needed the money. Ultimately, the pay was nowhere near enough to justify the source I burned and, based on social media feedback, it mostly being read with the point being kind of missed.

This isn't to blame the editors entirely--I had a moment to withdraw and I didn't take it, and I take full responsibility for that. It bears repeating that the conditions also weren't in their favor--print is hard, working on deadline is hard. But it would have been cool to not spend 2 months working on something and have it that embarrassingly reduced and misinterpreted. Oh well.

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