Before the bullet hits the body

‘Before the bullet hits the body’ takes its title from the seminal 2018 report by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which led to the dismantlement of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) ‘predictive’ policing programs. The algorithm presented at Pedion tou Areos describes an area’s predicted crime rate based on its historical average rate of crimes combined with recent trends. The Coalition’s community organizing expanded the critique of the LAPD’s algorithm beyond just questioning the ‘feedback loop,’ showing how police use the veneer of science to mask their violence. Thus, exposing crime data as a social construct intended to contain, control and criminalize Black, brown and poor communities. The Coalition argued that surveillance and crime data create the conditions of police violence “before the bullet hits the body.” Those conditions include incidents of police brutality like the 2020 killing of George Floyd, which led to global protests by the Black Lives Matter movement. The installation adopts the visual language of these protests, which included slogans written on major roads in the U.S. Along with the installation at Pedion tou Areos, the project consists of a curated presentation of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition’s work on Stegi’s website and a series of online discussions.

Title: Before the bullet hits the body

Medium: Ground Mural

Artist: Bill Balaskas & Stop LAPD Spying Coalition

Year: 2021

Location: On display at Pedion tou Areos

Glossary: algorithm

Video documentaries and reports on predictive policing, and on the work of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.

The Report ‘Before the Bullet Hits the Body’ by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition that led to the dismantlement of LAPD’s “predictive” policing programmes.

The infographic offers the “big picture” – a comprehensive overview of the way in which the “Stalker State” operates, through public and private organisations-corporations that use technologies producing a complex network of spying and oppression mechanisms (from the project ‘The Stalker State’ of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition).

Presentation of the Coalition at the LA Police Commission’s Public Hearings on Data-Driven Evince Based Policing, on 24 July 2018. The Coalition demanded the dismantlement of predictive policing programmes and a thorough audit by the Office of Inspector General.

In March 2019, Inspector General Mark Smith released a 52-page report, which found that LAPD officers used inconsistent criteria to identify people with criminal histories who are most likely to commit violent crimes. According to the report, 44% of the so-called chronic offenders had either zero or one arrest for violent crimes. About half had no arrests for gun-related crimes, while others were in custody or had been arrested for only nonviolent crimes.

Αrticle in the Los Angeles Times about the legal victory of the Coalition, which led to the publication of information on the data policing programs of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Timeline of the Coalition’s activities from June 2013 to April 2020, as published in the organization’s zine, “Not a moment in time, but a continuation of history” (May 2020).

Public statement of the mother of African-American Ezell Ford, who was shot dead by two police officers in Los Angeles on 11 August 2014. He was 25 years old.