I’ve started a newsletter at my school, highlighting interesting legal and technology stories – but some weeks, I am overwhelmed. I want to keep the newsletter small and manageable, so I’ve decided to use the blog for overflow: items I think are worth reading that didn’t make this week’s newsletter. This will largely be open-web material, since this is an open-web blog.

Suffolk University Law School is holding its conference on legal education and technology, LITCon, March 30, 2020. More details here, including how to apply to give a rapid-fire talk. And they even have a cute little not-a-bot to help you decide if you should go.

According to this Buzzfeed article, there’s a trend of police officers using mugshots and suspect photos for viral content and memes on social media.

This week, I discovered Sidney Fussell at The Atlantic and I may need a subscription because he is good:

• How body-cam systems for police are not only failing to stem excessive force, but are being used for public surveillance.
• The problems with the ways Google attempted to deal with facial recognition bias

Stanford Law School has an Open Policing Project that is collecting and analyzing data from traffic stops from over 40 states. Data Scientist Amy Shoemaker will be providing an update on the project @ Stanford Codex on December 5, 2019. If you’re in the area, great, but if you aren’t, there’s remote viewing options, too, but you must register to get the info.

What exactly is a smart city? And who benefits from its existence, if it is actually a real thing? Jathan Sadowski argues that the surveillance and centralized control needed for a city to become ‘smart’ is not done primarily for the benefit of the public.