A case study

On May 25, 1977, IEEE member, Virginia Edgerton, a senior information scientist employed by the City of New York, telephoned the chairman of CSIT´s Working Group on Ethics and Employment Practices, having been referred to the committee by IEEE Headquarters. She said that she had encountered a situation that might lead to the degradation of a data processing system (called SPRINT) used to dispatch police cars in response to emergency calls, and that her immediate superior, who disagreed with this assessment, refused to have the problem studied. Ms. Edgerton sought advice from the committee.