Police algorithm said Lina was at risk: then she was killed

In January, Lina appealed to the police.

Her former partner threatened her at home in the Spanish seaside town of Bolonman. On that day, he allegedly raised his hand as if he had hit her.

“There were rigid episodes – she was scared,” Lina Daniel recalls.

When she got to the police, she was interviewed, and her case was registered in Viogén, a digital instrument that assesses the likelihood that the woman is again attacked by the same man.

Viogén – a system based on the algorithm – asks 35 questions about abuse and its intensity, access to the aggressor to weapons, his mental health and whether the woman has left or views relationships.

He then records her threat as “minor”, “low”, “medium”, “high” or “extreme”.

The category is used to make decisions about the distribution of police resources to protect a woman.

Lina was considered the risk of “medium”.

She asked for a restrained order in the court of gender violence in Malaga so that her former partner could not contact her or share her living space. The request was denied.

“Lina wanted to change the castles in her home so she could live peacefully with her children,” her cousin says.

Three weeks later she died. Her partner allegedly used her key to enter her apartment, and soon the house caught fire.

While her children, mothers and ex-partner, escaped, Lina did not. Her 11-year-old son was widely reported as he told the police that his father had killed his mother.

The inanimate body of Lina was obtained from the burnt interior of her home. Her former partner, the father of three younger children, was arrested.

Now her death raises questions about Viogén and his ability to support Spain safely.

Viogén did not accurately predicted the threat to Lina.

As a woman assigned at the “average” risk, the protocol is that within 30 days she will again be monitored by a nominated police officer.

But before that, Lina died. If she were a “high” risk, the following police observation would occur within a week. Can this change the situation with Lina?

Tools to evaluate the threat of re -violence in the family used in North America and across Europe. In the UK, some police forces use DARA (the risk assessment in the family) – essentially a control list. And Dash (home cruelty, persecution, persecution and assessment of violence based on readiness) can be occupied by police or others, such as social workers, to assess the risk of another attack.

But only in Spain is an algorithm that is so tightly invested in the police practice. Viogén was developed by the Spanish police and scientists. It is used everywhere except the Basque and Catalonia country (there are separate systems in these regions, although police cooperation is across the country).

The head of the family and women’s units of the National Police in Malaga, the UCIA Izabel Espezh, describes Viogene as “super important”.

“It helps us to monitor the case of every victim very accurately,” she says.

Its officers are engaged in an average of 10 reports of gender violence per day. And every month Viogén classifies nine or 10 women under the “extraordinary” risk of repetition.

The consequences of the resources in these cases are huge: the 24 -hour police defense of the woman to change the circumstances and the risk is reduced. Women who are rated as “high” risk can also be accompanied by an officer.

The 2014 study showed that the officers made the Viogén assessment for the probability of re -abuse at 95% of the time. Critics believe that police refuse to make women’s security decisions to the algorithm.

CH Inspejo says the calculation of the risk algorithm is usually adequate. But she admits – although the case of Lina was not under her command – that something went wrong with Lina’s assessment.

“I am not going to say that Viogén does not pass – this is so. But this is not the trigger that led to the murder of this woman. The only fault is the person who killed Lin. General security just does not exist,” she says.

But at the “medium” risk of Lina was never a priority of the police. And did it influence the evaluation of Lina Viogen on the decision of the court’s refusal against her former partner?

The court authorities did not give us permission to meet with a judge who refused to Lin in connection with his former partner – a woman who attacked social media after the death of Lina.

Instead, another of Malaga’s gender violence, Maria Del -Carmen Gutirres, tells us in general that such an order needs two things: a testimony of a crime and a threat of serious danger to the victim.

“Viogén is one element I use to evaluate this danger, but it is far from one,” she says.

Sometimes, according to the judge, she accepts restrained orders in cases where Viogén assesses the woman as “minor” or “low” risk. In other cases, she may conclude that for a woman who is considered “medium” or “high” risk of re -vicimization.

D -R -Juan Jose Medina, a criminalist at the University of Seville, says Spain has a “postcode lottery” for women who apply for restrained orders – some jurisdictions are much more likely than others. But we do not know systematically as Viogén affects the courts or the police because the research was not conducted.

“How do police officers and other stakeholders use this tool, and how does it report on decision-making? We have no good answers,” he says.

The Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs often did not allow scientists to access Viogén data. And there was no independent audit of the algorithm.

Gemma Galdon, the founder of Eticas, is an organization working on social and ethical technology impact – says that if you do not audit these systems, you do not know if they really provide police protection for women.

Examples of algorithmic displacement elsewhere are well documented. In the United States, the analysis since 2016. Related tool has found that black defendants were more likely than their white peers, which would misinterpret to be more at risk of re -resentment. At the same time, the white accused were more likely than the black defendants were mistaken as a low risk.

In 2018, the Spanish Interior Ministry did not give green light to the Eticas proposal conducting a confidential, pro-bona, an internal audit. So, instead, Jem Galdon and her colleagues have decided a viahén reverse engineer and make an external audit.

They used interviews with women who survived the family and publicly available information – including the judicial system about women who, like Lina, were killed.

They found that from 2003 to 2021, 71 women killed by their partners or former partners, previously reported violence in the family. Those who were recorded in the Viogén system gave the risk of “minor” or “medium”.

“What would we like to know, were there any errors that could not mitigate in any way? Can we do anything to improve how these systems are a risk and better protect these women?” Asks Jem Galdon.

The head of the study of gender violence at the Spanish Ministry Juan Jose Lopez-Osorio refuses to investigate Eticas: This was not done with Viogén data. “If you don’t have access to the data how you can interpret it?” he says.

And he is cautious about the external audit, fearing that it may endanger both the safety of women whose cases are recorded and Viogén procedures.

“What we know is what after a woman reports on a man and she is under police defense, the likelihood of further violence is significantly reduced – we have no doubt,” says Lopez -Ossorio.

Viogén has developed since it was presented in Spain. The questionnaire was refined and the “minor” risk category will be canceled quickly. And even critics agree that it makes sense to have a standardized system that responds to gender violence.

In Benalmoden, Lina’s house became a shrine.

The flowers, candles and drawings of the saints remained in step. A small poster stuck on the wall announced: Benalman says not gender violence. The community was going to the children of Lina.

Her cousin, Daniel, says that everything still feels about her death.

“The family is destroyed – especially the mother’s mother,” he says.

“She’s 82 years old. I don’t think there is something more sad than killing your daughter to the aggressors that could be avoided. Children are still shocked – they will need a lot of psychological help.”