{"id":44038,"date":"2018-12-06T12:36:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T11:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=37983"},"modified":"2019-04-26T18:30:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:30:26","slug":"minority-report-is-real-we-can-now-foresee-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2018\/12\/minority-report-is-real-we-can-now-foresee-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Minority Report is real : we can now foresee crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1956:\u00a0<\/strong>That was the year the book “Minority Report” was written by<\/span> Philip K. Dick.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2019:\u00a0<\/strong>That’s when it will become a reality.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With the National Data Analytics Solution, w<\/span>elcome to the age of preventing crime before it happens. Maybe<\/span>.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Preventing crime<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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“Minority Report” is a novel written by Sci-Fi author Philip K. Dick. In his dystopian world, crimes can be foreseen and prevented. This leads to people <\/span>being detained<\/span><\/span> before anything happens (ie. “detained for no crime”).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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West Midland Police (UK) is currently working on a project<\/a> to predict serious violent crime<\/span><\/span>. It relies on artificial intelligence, statistics, and big data. Enter the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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How it works<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Using records of prior arrests, Police database, mental health records, the NDAS will analyze as many as 1400 indicators<\/span><\/span>. Of these 1400 indicators, 30 seem particularly powerful in predicting future offenses.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This only applies to people having committed a previous felony. NDAS is not designed for law-abiding citizens… yet.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The “known associates”, and the records of the social group the individual is in, <\/span>are taken<\/span><\/span> into account.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The idea is to identify the people most likely to turn to more violent crime.<\/span><\/div>\n
Once identified, they won’t <\/span><\/span>be arrested<\/span><\/span> but will <\/span><\/span>benefit from<\/span><\/span> counseling with social workers or mental health professionals<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Machine learning will help make the analysis more accurate with time.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As Police forces shrink, this could help them concentrate on the population that holds most risks<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Although it is still in development and limited in scope, NDAS <\/span><\/span>is destined<\/span><\/span> to be <\/span><\/span>widely<\/span><\/span> used in <\/span><\/span>all of<\/span><\/span> UK once it is <\/span><\/span>fully<\/span><\/span> operational<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Shortcomings and ethics<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The whole process gives a shivering feeling, <\/span>ethically<\/span><\/span> speaking. But there are also matters of concern about the more technical aspects.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One of them is the data collection. The data comes <\/span>mainly<\/span><\/span> from the Police database. <\/span>This means that less populated areas will <\/span><\/span>be left<\/span><\/span> behind and the most populated ones will be under heavy scrutiny<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the same way, belonging to specific ethnic groups could target people for intervention<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The whole system, pretty much like in the novel, poses the same old nagging question. Will the crime occur indeed if nothing <\/span>is done<\/span><\/span>?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Time machine still being in R&D (as far as we know ;-), there is no way of answering that crucial question.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Identifying risky individuals sure raises ethics questions. The benevolent spirit of the entire project may have overlooked some issues. The Alan Turing Institute in the UK <\/span>has brought these concerns<\/span><\/a> to the team working on NDAS. It seems the two will now collaborate to produce a more ethics-oriented system. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ethics is an adjustable variable<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Uk is not the only place where such technology is in use. Elsewhere, it can pinpoint hotspots where crimes are more likely to occur. <\/span>This could be a valuable strategy as remodeling urbanized areas could help lower criminality<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Detecting “crime indicators” could help widen knowledge on what causes criminality and offer options to act on a wider scale<\/span><\/span>. Pinpointing individuals who have already committed offenses may come a bit late. <\/span>Acting on the levers that brought about those offenses could prove more efficient (in the long run).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Unfortunately, some nations are less bothered by ethics. <\/span>Profiling tools such as NDAS (coupled with surveillance) are already <\/span><\/span>used to detain people<\/span><\/a> in regions of China<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As always, tech breakthroughs come with their load of “we can but should we?” questions. Profiling is but one of them. Ethics should <\/span>be integrated<\/span><\/span> early on in R&D so we don’t end up in a Philip K. Dick novel.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1956:\u00a0That was the year the book “Minority Report” was written by Philip K. Dick. 2019:\u00a0That’s when it will become a reality. With the National Data Analytics Solution, welcome to the age of preventing crime before it happens. Maybe. \u00a0 \u00a0 Preventing crime \u00a0 “Minority Report” is a novel written by Sci-Fi author Philip K. Dick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":64802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[7401,7491,7493,7496,7173],"class_list":["post-44038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance","tag-big-data-en-2","tag-china-en","tag-data","tag-personal-data-en","tag-uk-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}