
PredPol

PredPol, Inc is a predictive policing company that attempts to predict property crimes using predictive analytics. PredPol is also the name of the software the company produces.
PredPol began as a project of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and UCLA professor Jeff Brantingham. PredPol has produced a patented algorithm, which is based on a model used to predict earthquake aftershocks. 
As of 2020, PredPol's algorithm is the most commonly used predictive policing algorithm in the U.S. Police departments that use PredPol are given printouts of jurisdiction maps that denote areas where crime has been predicted to occur throughout the day. The "Los Angeles Times" reported that officers are expected to patrol these areas during their shifts, as the system tracks their movements via the GPS in their patrol cars. Scholar Ruha Benjamin called PredPol a "crime production algorithm," as police officers then more heavily patrol these predicted crime zones, expecting to see crime, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. 
PredPol was created in 2010 and was a leading vendor of predictive policing technology by 2012. "Smithsonian" magazine remarked in 2018 that no independent published research had ever confirmed PredPol's claims of its software's accuracy. In March 2019, the LAPD's internal audit concluded that there were insufficient data to determine if PredPol software helped reduce crime.
In October 2018 Cory Doctorow described the secrecy around identifying which police departments use PredPol. PredPol does not share this information. The information is not accessible to the public. In February 2019 Vice followed up to report that many police departments secretly use PredPol. According to PredPol in 2019, 60 police departments in the U.S. used PredPol, most of which were mid-size agencies of 100 to 200 officers. In 2019, several cities reported cancelling PredPol contracts due to cost. The city of Mountain View, California spent more than $60,000 on the program between 2013 and 2018, and Hagerstown, Maryland spent $15,000 a year on the service until 2018.
In 2016 Mic reported that PredPol is racist for inappropriately accusing black people of crimes.
In 2017 the Santa Cruz Police Department banned the use of PredPol unless police got explicit approval from the Santa Cruz City Council via a resolution requirement that stated predictive policing should not perpetuate racial biases. PredPol CEO Brian MacDonald said it supported the city resolution's requirement that predictive policing should not perpetuate racial bias, because PredPol is confident its software is not racially biased and that it meets the conditions in the city's ordinance. 
Institutions like the Brennan Center have urged for transparency from these police departments, because in order for policymakers and auditors to evaluate these algorithms, audit logs of who creates and accesses the predictions need to be kept and disclosed. 
In 2018 the BBC compared PredPol to the film "The Minority Report".
In April 2020, LAPD, one of the oldest customer of PredPol, ended its program without being able to measure the effectiveness of this product. 