19 november 1968 & fed govt hired computer co. to profile residents arrested re uprising

#OTD 19 November 1968 DC residents were talking about a newly released study “personally ordered” by white Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz that profiled individuals arrested after the uprising that occurred after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

According to the Evening Star, “the study was prepared by Software Systems Inc., a private research firm, for the Labor Dept. It is, in part, a computer analysis of 978 reports the D.C. Bail Agency made of those arrested during the [uprising].”

Your comments are welcome below. Do you, family members or neighbors remember reading about this computer analysis? What were the conversations like? What do you think of this 1968 form of profiling? Do you know anything about Software Systems Inc? Where were they located? What computer systems were used? Are there any original materials and technologies still extant? Did you work for the company in 1968? You may comment privately here.

John Fialka, “Computer Draws a Profile of D.C. Rioters,” Evening Star 17 November 1968.