The Future lies in FACT
(Future Attributes of Criminals Technology)
Prediction of Crimes Even Before They Happen....
But that's not all. Such a software has recently been created and is being tested in Santa Cruz by the California Police Department. The program is a software call PredPol (PredPol, 2012) and it calculates its forecasts based on time and locations of crimes that were committed in the past. Together with sociology information about criminal patterns and behaviors, this software has brought promising results to the police department despite it still being in the beta phrase. PredPol's system feature a map of the city marked with red squares to portray where crimes are most likely to occur. This will help allow the police to increase the number of patrols around that area as well, increasing the efficiency of allocation of resources.
At first, this software is only capable of estimating where home, car and vehicle thefts might take place. However, it has now increase to include prediction of bike thefts, assault and prowling. However, this software is still far cry from the futuristic CSI we see in televisions and shows.
With these technologies being created and implemented, we can foreseen a promising future in which crimes will be prevented through analyzing he database of past crimes, together with information like weather and timings
- Facial Recognition integrated within Public Infrastructure
Enhancing the capabilities of FACT, facial recognition integrated within public infrastructure (e.g. billboards, shop windows, public transportation, street lamps and even on house doors) can record and store information on individuals to be fed into the FACT system of algorithms. This facial recognition system will track individual profiles automatically, with inputs into an overall computer system. This will thus augment the capabilities of FACT, whereby the system will not only predict who has the highest chance of committing a crime, but also when and where the crime might possibly be committed.
Hence, instead of arresting an identified potential criminal straight away, there will be an effective monitoring system of the potential criminal, such that arrest can happen right before the line is crossed (before preparation for the crime becomes the actual act itself). This will give potential criminals the option of free will to turn back and abandon their plans without the state interfering and arresting them before they have even done the crime.
Moreover, this computerized omnipresent recognition system will reduce the burden on the law enforcement agencies as they would not need to mobilize vast amounts of manpower to monitor potential criminals as this can now be done through the infrastructure. This will revolutionize the efficiency of capturing escaped criminals/terrorists as well as overhaul the current police neighborhood patrol system of crime-prevention. There will be a reduction of labor intensive policing duties while ensuring greater accuracy and precision in law enforcement.
Finding missing people will also be a more expedient process, with the computer system being able to trace the whereabouts of the missing individual right from the date/time they go “missing”. In fact, “missing individual” cases might already be drastically reduced as potential kidnappers may be deterred by FACT future crime prediction.
As such, imagine a crime-free society where missing people are found, grievous hurt is averted and robbery, theft and even murders are prevented. Current forensic technology where crime scenes are investigated for information on likely culprits as well as identification of corpses will then be rendered almost completely obsolete.
The fleeting glimpse of future crime solving hinted at in the 2002 film “Minority Report” (refer to video above), provides a tantalizing yet scarily possible vision for the future of forensic sciences.
In the film, within the utopian world of Minority Report, Washington city has been murder-free for 6 years. This is due to a PreCrime police force that acts upon visions generated by 3 “precogs” (mutated humans with precognitive abilities) to stop murderers hours or minutes before they commit the dastardly deed.
Building upon this ideal model for crime solving, our proposed future vision however, involves more concrete data processing and prediction techniques than the use of psychic humans. Future Attributes of Criminals Technology (FACT) will be the leading technology of the future.
What is FACT?
FACT will collect, process and retain information on members of the public. Sensors will non-intrusively collect video images, audio recordings and psycho-physiological measurements from all individuals, including an analysis of behavioural patterns and actions. An individual’s personal history will be input into the system as well. This will include his or her education, profiles of family members and whether they are ex-offenders, socio-economic status of household, relationships and the individual’s history of transgressions with the law (inclusive of even parking tickets). All this entire range of variables collated will then be input in a complex algorithm to work out which individual has the highest chance of offending.
Crime Prediction
Crime prediction software, developed by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania (2010). The software, which was detailed in a Daily Mail article titled "The real Minority Report" upon its announcement, "collates a range of variables then uses an algorithm to work out who is at the highest chance of offending."[45] As in the film, the program was announced for a trial run in Washington D.C., which, if successful, will lead to a national rollout.
As such, Imagine a future where your crimes are determined the moment we are born. Image a system that is able to predict what harm you will bring to the society in the future. And using this technology, the police is able to apprehend criminals when they were young and prevent them from causing harm to society in the future.