Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed Erin Dalton as his commissioner of social services — a former Pennsylvania official who faced backlash after implementing an AI algorithm that disproportionately targeted black families.
Dalton comes from the Pittsburgh area of the state where she served as Allegheny County’s director of Department of Human Services.
The Mamdani administration heralded her efforts there to get homeless people off the streets without using the threat of jail and her implementation of a county mobile response team that sent out mental health workers on 911 calls.
“Erin Dalton has spent decades proving that government can and must work better for people who rely on it most,” Mamdani said. “She has expanded access to housing, strengthened social services and protected our most vulnerable neighbors.”
But Dalton faced blowback for her oversight of the child welfare program in the county, which has less than half the population of as Queens alone.
Allegheny County’s algorithm repeatedly flagged black children much more than their white counter parters for “mandatory” follow-ups, alleging potential neglect, according to the Associated Press.
County officials brushed off the concern, saying social workers had the ability to override the tool.