Devshi Mehrotra
JusticeText

Personal Bio

Devshi Mehrotra is one of the founders of JusticeText, a criminal justice startup building technology solutions to help redirect lives away from incarceration. She started this venture as a college student in Chicago inspired by the work of policing reform activists in her community. She has since raised $3 million in funding from investors like John Legend, Reid Hoffman, and Bloomberg Beta.

Devshi previously led applied machine learning projects at Google Brain, Microsoft Research, Peking University, and Stanford Law. Her work at the intersection of tech and racial justice has led her to be recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur, Dream.org Justice Innovation Prize winner, SXSW Pitch winner, and MIT Solver.

Devshi is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University.

Project Description

JusticeText is a software platform that leverages AI to flag critical moments across hours of body-worn camera footage, interrogation videos, and jail calls. We improve legal outcomes for low-income defendants by preemptively identifying evidence of police misconduct and increasing transparency around officer interactions. By designing this solution for justice-impacted communities, we are shifting control of digital discovery from the institutions that serve to arrest and incarcerate to those who have been historically harmed by these institutions.

The technology has been deployed across more than 60 public defender agencies nationwide, including the Committee for Public Counsel Services (MA), Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference (TN), and Metropolitan Public Defender (OR). JusticeText has been leveraged in thousands of cases to secure dismissals and reduced charges for indigent clients.