This video installation contains the artist’s simulation of predictive policing software, which forecasts locations of possible crimes based on their purported likelihood. Titled after the year the NYPD adopted this software, the work surrounds you as if you are looking through the windshield of a police car driving through city streets. A computer interface overlays the view. “The real software . . . is complex and uses past data produced by police,” American Artist has explained. “It’s biased data that increases the presence of cops and the frequency of arrests in Black and brown neighborhoods.”
Here the declaration “CRIME DETERRED” periodically appears against the backdrop of a quiet street, suggesting that an area absent of any actual crime has been criminalized. By inviting collective viewership, 2015 also references how police dashcam footage is presented in the media as a spectacle.
Gallery label from 2023
