Jack Smith IV reports:
In the film and now TV show Minority Report, a future police force uses psychics, called “precogs,” to predict crime and identify criminals. But in the 21st century, we don’t have clairvoyants or sci-fi magic. We have data projections, digital histories and social media profiles.
Pre-crime policing tech isn’t just real, it’s now ubiquitous. The business of pre-crime maps and prediction systems is booming, soaking up public finances in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami and dozens of other major precincts across the country. New tech startups and big-data corporations are claiming that their tools can divert police practice away from clunky, possibly discriminatory law enforcement and become more efficient and more fair.
Stats are stats. An algorithm can’t be racist, right?
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