How can I tell if my city uses algorithmic tools for welfare or policing?

[Elizabeth_R]

I read a news article about a city using an algorithm to help determine things like welfare eligibility or policing hotspots. The piece raised concerns about algorithmic bias in public policy, but it was light on specifics. How can a regular person even find out if these systems are being used in their own community, let alone understand what data is being fed into them and how it might be flawed?