Are we ready for Minority Report-style policing and is it money well spent?

[Blatman]

9 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

 

The Diplomatic Service’s loss is our gain.  Ease up on the hammers there please Blatters, that’s a bit OTT dontchathink?

 

Lyonspride has a demonstrable (and well documented) habit of presenting his view of the police and law as all bad all the time with people guilty until proven innocent. He also has a habit of stopping commenting when challenged for proof. He likes a sweeping statement based on public or populist hearsay and presents them as legal absolutes. It's nonsense and I am going to call it out every time.

 

Given that my own personal self moderation rule is "would I say what I'm about to type if I was face to face with the individual to which my comments are directed?" my answer is yes, I would say exactly what I have posted to Lyonspride if we were ever to be in the same place at the same time. It would be an interesting and engaging conversation which is what I hope this will be. Now...

 

10 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

Because at this point it is still Police officers making the decisions, not a computer.

 

But every time this debate comes up your opinion is always guilty until proven innocent and that evidence can be entirely circumstantial and that circumstantial evidence is enough to secure a conviction 100% of the time. So it's bad with cops and lawyers and will be just as bad without cops and lawyers. So what is your idea of a fair and equitable way to deal with investigating crime and gathering evidence in order to secure a conviction?

 

[Blatman]

6 hours ago, DonPeffers said:

The 'data' can be wrongly interpreted so if you like someone's posts or are photographed with someone who is later identified as a criminal then your score goes up based on that intel.

 

Surely once you have been ruled out as involved then your "score" goes back to what it should be? The authorities have already been in trouble before for holding DNA samples without cause. If they were to be caught again doing something similar then they risk another dent to public confidence.

I believe the Police have always had to have some sort of cause to stop and search. It's just that cause has been interpreted as "race" or "colour". Some of that is justified criticism and some is not. If the police stop me for speeding do they have the legal right to search my car? I don't know but what is the benefit to me of denying them? And having just written that it occurs to me that pretty much all the police shows where we see footage of the police dealing with the public, those generally trying to prevent a search have something to hide. Of course the conspiracy theorists will say that when they stop the innocent that gets edited out. But if there really was an epidemic of the police stopping the innocent a LOT, we'd hear about from legitimate sources and the crime figures would suck a lot more. But I digress...

 

I also am aware that I may be placing too much faith in the authorities but as they are at the front line and for the vast majority of the time do an extraordinary job in very difficult circumstances, I will pay due respect. Plus, they have not yet arrested me for buying things on the internet that could be used for a crime (knives, torches, balaclava's, camo gear, body armour wire cutters, Nike trainers etc) so I'm pretty OK with their data gathering and analysis. They seem to know me well enough. Would a Minority Report computer algorithm be able to figure out if I was a crook or not based on my eBay and Amazon history? Dunno, but I assume that once identified as a potential risk, a human would make the final decision. If I was really that worried I'd use cash at the shops and wear a hoodie. I wonder why crooks haven't figured this out...

[Lyonspride]

On 20/07/2019 at 21:08, Blatman said:

 

Lyonspride has a demonstrable (and well documented) habit of presenting his view of the police and law as all bad all the time with people guilty until proven innocent.

 

 

Not at all, I have great respect for front line officers, but I know most of the time they've got their hands tied, I know this from a friend in WMP.

When comes to technology and the internet, I don't think it a case of guilty until proven innocent, it's a case of lack of high level understanding of the technology and increasing reliance on said technology. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing........

 

[MrPid]

This appears to be more sensationalist journalism at its finest.

 

The Police already employ these methods when profiling suspects, however they are usually left to do this once a crime has been committed, when they are on the clock and people are already in custody. Once the case is over all the information is usually discarded.

 

The initiative is to build a solid database to help predict and focus on potential offenders. Which is more in line with old fashioned police work where "gut feeling" was used to remarkably good effect. The local beat coppers knew the wronguns and kept a close eye on them.

 

The database is step in that direction, but on a national scale. Criminal profiling has been around since policing began, this is nothing knew and I think anything that helps the police to their ever increasingly difficult job is a good idea.

 

Again similar techniques are employed under counter-terrorism operations, this helps build and maintain profiles of realistic suspects. Again, this is understaffed and the newspapers love to tell us that a suspect was "known" to police after an attack, as if to lay blame.

 

Ultimately, it will always mean an officer will have to review and act on any information gathering to make sure the rule of law is followed. Sadly, it will highlight the biggest problem that faces the force, actual officers to carry out the work. The intention being that the database will allow the same job to be done with less staff, hopefully freeing officers up for more "hands-on" work.

 

This is nothing new, they are simply building a database, rather than playing catch up all the time.

 

I hope it helps make a difficult job slightly more bearable.