‘Minority Report policing’: UK believes that through AI ‘the eyes of the state can be on you at all times’
Criminals could be stopped before they strike under Minority Report-style policing plans.
Police chiefs are evaluating around 100 projects in which officers are trialling the use of AI to help combat crime.
The expanded use of AI and technology by police – with the aim of putting the “eyes of the state” on criminals “at all times” – is expected to be part of police reforms by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, in a white paper next week.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Sir Andy Marsh, the head of the College of Policing, said one of three key uses was “predictive analytics” to target criminals before they strike.
He is proposing to use the technology to identify and target the 1,000 most dangerous predatory men who pose the highest risk to women and girls in England and Wales.
“We know the data and case histories tell us that, unfortunately, it’s far from uncommon for these individuals to move from one female victim to another, and we understand all of the difficulties of bringing successful cases to bear in court,” he said.
“So what we want to do is use these predictive tools to take the battle to those individuals, so that they are the ones who are frightened because the police are coming after them and we’re going to lock them up.”
Minority Report, the 2002 Spielberg film, depicts a futuristic world in which police forces are able to foresee crimes before they happen and arrest would-be perpetrators.
The Government is investing £4m in creating an interactive AI-driven map of England and Wales by 2030 that aims to stop criminals before they strike.
In an interview with Sir Tony Blair last month, [Mahmood] said: “AI and technology can be transformative to the whole of the law and order space.
“When I was in justice, my ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times.
“Similarly, in the world of policing, in particular, we’ve already been rolling out live facial recognition technology, but I think there’s big space here for being able to harness the power of AI and tech to get ahead of the criminals, frankly, which is what we’re trying to do.” [Continue reading…]