Google donates millions to fight racial injustice in US

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO

Google is donating $11.5 million to organizations that combat racial disparities in the U.S. criminal judicial system, the company said Thursday.

Funding will be funneled through the company’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, and much of the grants will go toward organizations that use algorithms and data to study racial bias in the justice system.

“Throughout my lifetime, I’ve seen law enforcement officers be a force for good in communities,” wrote Google.org principal Justin Steele in the official announcement. “But I’ve also borne witness to injustices that have shaken my faith in our criminal justice system. In my work at Google.org, I help identify causes and organizations that aim to ultimately help correct many of these injustices.”

Collecting data on local policing is often difficult because information from municipalities across the country can have gaps from year to year, especially when it concerns specifics such as if force was used to detained a subject.

Google is donating $5 million to the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), which attempts to compile national data relating to policing and race.

CPE has already discovered troubling trends. In a report last year, the group found the average rate of police use of force against blacks is 2.5 times higher than the overall rate and 3.6 times higher than the rate for whites.

In addition to the funding, Google engineers are volunteering their time to assist with the CPE’s work.

Nine other organizations are also receiving grants ranging from $250,000-$1.5 million from Google.org, including Measures for Justice, W. Haywood Burns Institute, Impact Justice, JustLeadershipUSA, #Cut50, Defy Ventures, Center for Employment Opportunities, Silicon Valley De-Bug and Code for America.

Google had donated to some of those groups in previous years.

Overall, the $11.5 million in grants represent a more than doubling of the $5 million the company donated to organizations fighting racial bias in the criminal justice system since 2015.

“A person's race should not determine how they are treated by the law,” Steele said. “We’re proud to support these organizations, and we hope that their focus on data and community-driven solutions to will bring us closer to a more just society,” he added.