Crime and Technology Ethics (I): What is Precrime?

Today we inaugurate our blog with a two-article series about technology ethics, with the example of precrime.

Precrime is one of these realities that have jumped off straight from the film screen to become part of our increasingly technological world, and in this case, with a deep impact on law enforcement. The term refers to the prediction and prosecution of crimes through artificial intelligence (AI) and big data before they have actually happened. In a broader sense, it is also used to describe the growing tendency in some countries to prosecute crimes that haven't happened, such as conspiracies.

The term precrime was first coined by Philip K. Dick in the 1956 science fiction short story "The Minority Report.”, later a 2002 film starring Tom Cruise in the main role. It features a specialized “Department of Pre-Crime” where psychic “precog” triplets with their brains directly interfaced with police computers discern which “criminals” to pursue before they commit crimes. The thing is, as far-fetched and futurist this plot may appear, something similar is actually being tested and used in several parts of the world, and Europe is not an exception.

Precrime is connected with the concept of thoughtcrime, which is another science fiction-coined penalty for expressing or having a thought. Both terms are related to freedom of speech and the increasing ability of technology to monitor and analyse human patterns, as criminal predictions are based on behaviour and background, among other factors. This in turn leads us to the field of technology ethics, as several (human) questions may arise at this point, including if we should govern this kind of mechanisms with principles such as risk management or individual rights.

Today, there exist police precrime units in some cities which use big data in order to identify the hot spots of offences. When ethics appear, however, data management also becomes a key factor. The first precrime systems, for example, focused on poor neighbourhoods. This was because older operations in the police reports created a bias: the systems were being used to predict crime in those areas where it was already known to happen frequently, so there was no advantage nor real prediction. In New York City, however, the Police Department has worked towards the creation of unbiased technology. An example of this is the Department of Motor Vehicles' Facial Recognition Technology Program, which has helped to detect 21,000 fraud cases in only two years.

Naturally, precrime and algorithm technology in general pose some serious, deep questions that only humans, as ethical beings, can ask themselves. ¿Is it right to apply prediction technology to the field of criminal law enforcement, and therefore pre-judge people who have not violated the law yet, or is this prevention worthwhile for the society? ¿Can a machine actually predict our behaviour? And if so, ¿Do we really want to know what the future holds? These dilemmas are now arising in every field of knowledge where technology is gaining presence, but, as paradoxical (and controversial) as it may be to some, law experts are probably some of the best qualified to provide fair answers and solutions to them.

Keep discovering how close the future is for law in our next article of these series, in which we will present some examples of precrime programmes around the world. Stay tuned… and behave well!

References:

COATS, K. 2018. The Future Of Policing Using Pre-Crime Technology. [Retrieval: 14^th January 2019]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/14/the-future-of-policing-using-pre-crime-technology/#97c7d9464a11

 

IAHUAWEI. 2018. Precrimen, ¿cómo se utiliza la IA para la detección de crímenes futuros? (in Spanish). [Retrieval: 14^th January 2019]. Available at: https://iahuawei.xataka.com/precrimen-como-se-utiliza-ia-para-deteccion-crimenes-futuros/

 

NEW YORK STATE. 2017. Governor Cuomo Announces Major Facial Recognition Technology Milestone with 21,000 Fraud Cases Investigated. [Retrieval: 14^th January 2019]. Available at: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-major-facial-recognition-technology-milestone-21000-fraud-cases

 

SPACEY, J. 2016. 20 Types of Technology Ethics. [Retrieval: 14^th January 2019]. Available at: https://simplicable.com/cite/technology-ethics

 

SPACEY, J. 2018. What is Precrime? [Retrieval: 14^th January 2019]. Available at: https://simplicable.com/new/precrime