#575 Online: Data-driven criminalization - The case of Chicago's gang database, Part 2

In September 2023, the interim Chicago Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability unanimously voted to end the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) gang database. This victory comes after years of grassroots abolitionist organizing efforts to counteract criminalizing surveillance, with strategic research support from the UIC Policing in Chicago Research Group (PCRG) to help expose the data-driven criminalization enabled by the gang database.

Researcher-organizer and PCRG member Janae Bonsu-Love returns to Chi Hack Night with fellow PCRG member Enrique Alvear Moreno to present the challenges and successes leading to the #EraseTheDatabase victory and the insidious relationship between interagency coordination, data sharing, and criminalization.