by Khari Johnson, Wired:

A new report finds that municipal agencies in Washington deploy dozens of automated decision systems, often without residents’ knowledge.

WASHINGTON, DC, IS the home base of the most powerful government on earth. It’s also home to 690,000 people—and 29 obscure algorithms that shape their lives. City agencies use automation to screen housing applicants, predict criminal recidivism, identify food assistance fraud, determine if a high schooler is likely to drop out, inform sentencing decisions for young people, and many other things.