Predictive Policing

2021 ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Seumas Miller
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
Surveillance Society

This chapter addresses predictive policing, which is a term that refers to a range of crime-fighting approaches that use crime mapping data and analysis, and, more recently, social network analysis, big data, and predictive algorithms. The rise of predictive policing, especially in many police jurisdictions in large cities in the USA, has raised the spectre of the surveillance society in which citizens can be arrested by police for crimes they have not yet committed on the basis of evidence that they will commit them. Speaking generally, predictive policing faces several problems. Some of these are problems for predictive policing even in its own terms of contributing to crime reduction. Others are moral problems, about whether predictive policing violates moral rights or is unjust. These two types of problems are interconnected. Ultimately, the expanding use of biometric facial recognition databases and other emerging technologies in law enforcement as part of predictive policing should be clearly and demonstrably justified in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in the service of specific law enforcement purposes rather than by general appeals to community security or safety. Moreover, it should comply with moral principles constitutive of liberal democracy, such as the principle that individuals have a moral right to freedom from state interference absent prior evidence of violation of its laws.

scholarly journals Predictive policing: Utopia or dystopia? On attitudes towards the use of big data algorithms for law enforcement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Miró Llinares
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Control ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
The One

The use of predictive AI tools to improve decision-making in relation to crime prevention and investigation is a reality. They are being implemented almost before we fully understand how they work, while we make relevant legal decisions that may determine the progress of the technology, and long before we can predict their full impact. This paper addresses the attitudes towards this technological revolution applied to criminal justice, focusing in particular on its use by police. The first section summarises and describes the techniques and technologies that make up predictive policing. Subsequently, the main part of the study analyses the attitudes with which this technology has been received. These range from the optimism of those who defend its immediate implementation as a way to improve police objectivity and efficiency, to the pessimism of those who see its use as strengthening a dystopia of state control and surveillance. Two apparent extremes that correspond to the transition from optimism to technological pessimism of the twentieth century. The article concludes with a defence of a realistic, critical and informed view of the use of these predictive algorithms. A vision that, on the one hand, accepts that there are no neutral technologies, yet does not fall into fatalism and technophobia; and, on the other hand, places the human being and the legitimate police function at the centre of the algorithmic equation while redefining its objectives based on the scientific evidence applied to each individual technology.

scholarly journals Changes in Police Calls for Service During the Early Months of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P J Ashby
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Calls For Service ◽  
Contingency Plans ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Service Data

Abstract The coronavirus pandemic poses multiple challenges for policing, including the need to continue responding to calls from the public. Several contingency plans warned police to expect a large and potentially overwhelming increase in demand from the public during a pandemic, but (to the author’s knowledge) there is no empirical work on police demand during a major public health emergency. This study used calls-for-service data from 10 large cities in the USA to analyse how calls for service changed during the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, compared to forecasts of call volume based on data from previous years. Contrary to previous warnings, overall the number of calls went down during the early weeks of the pandemic. There were substantial reductions in specific call types, such as traffic collisions, and significant increases in others, such as calls to dead bodies. Other types of calls, particularly those relating to crime and order maintenance, continued largely as before. Changes in the frequency of different call types present challenges to law enforcement agencies, particularly since many will themselves be suffering from reduced staffing due to the pandemic. Understanding changes to calls in detail will allow police leaders to put in place evidence-based plans to ensure they can continue to serve the public.

scholarly journals Predictive policing: utopia or dystopia? On attitudes towards the use of big data algorithms for law enforcement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Miró Llinares
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Control ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
The One

The use of predictive AI tools to improve decision-making in relation to crime prevention and investigation is a reality. They are being implemented almost before we fully understand how they work, while we make relevant legal decisions that may determine the progress of the technology, and long before we can predict their full impact. This paper addresses the attitudes towards this technological revolution applied to criminal justice, focusing in particular on its use by police. The first section summarises and describes the techniques and technologies that make up predictive policing. Subsequently, the main part of the study analyses the attitudes with which this technology has been received. These range from the optimism of those who defend its immediate implementation as a way to improve police objectivity and efficiency, to the pessimism of those who see its use as strengthening a dystopia of state control and surveillance. Two apparent extremes that correspond to the transition from optimism to technological pessimism of the twentieth century. The article concludes with a defence of a realistic, critical and informed view of the use of these predictive algorithms. A vision that, on the one hand, accepts that there are no neutral technologies, yet does not fall into fatalism and technophobia; and, on the other hand, places the human being and the legitimate police function at the centre of the algorithmic equation while redefining its objectives based on the scientific evidence applied to each individual technology.

scholarly journals Selling international law enforcement: Elite justifications and public values

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316802095678
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Lee ◽  
Lauren Prather
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Law ◽  
Public Support ◽  
International Order ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Public Values ◽  
Norm Enforcement ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Law ◽  
Order Increase

International law enforcement is an understudied but indispensable factor for maintaining the international order. We study the effectiveness of elite justifications in building coalitions supporting the enforcement of violations of the law against territorial seizures. Using survey experiments fielded in the USA and Australia, we find that the effectiveness of two common justifications for enforcement—the illegality of a country’s actions, and the consequences of those actions for international order—increase support for enforcement and do so independently of two key public values: ideology and interpersonal norm enforcement. These results imply elites can build a broad coalition of support by using multiple justifications. Our results, however, highlight the tepidness of public support, suggesting limits to elite rhetoric. This study contributes to the scholarship on international law by showing how the public, typically considered a mechanism for generating compliance within states, can impede or facilitate third-party enforcement of the law between states.

scholarly journals Predictive Policing and Crime Control in The United States of America and Europe: Trends in a Decade of Research and the Future of Predictive Policing

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Ishmael Mugari ◽  
Emeka E. Obioha
Keyword(s):  
Crime Control ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
Developed Nations ◽  
Predictive Software

There has been a significant focus on predictive policing systems, as law enforcement agents embrace modern technology to forecast criminal activity. Most developed nations have implemented predictive policing, albeit with mixed reactions over its effectiveness. Whilst at its inception, predictive policing involved simple heuristics and algorithms, it has increased in sophistication in the ever-changing technological environment. This paper, which is based on a literature survey, examines predictive policing over the last decade (2010 to 2020). The paper examines how various nations have implemented predictive policing and also documents the impediments to predictive policing. The paper reveals that despite the adoption of predictive software applications such as PredPol, Risk Terrain Modelling, HunchLab, PreMap, PRECOBS, Crime Anticipation System, and Azevea, there are several impediments that have militated against the effectiveness of predictive policing, and these include low predictive accuracy, limited scope of crimes that can be predicted, high cost of predictive policing software, flawed data input, and the biased nature of some predictive software applications. Despite these challenges, the paper reveals that there is consensus by the majority of the researchers on the importance of predictive algorithms on the policing landscape.

scholarly journals Urban ecosystem services in strategic planning in Swedish municipalities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsa Ode Sang ◽  
Frederik Aagaard Hagemann ◽  
Nils Ekelund ◽  
Jessica Svännel
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Urban Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Usa

AbstractResearch to date on urban ecosystem services has mainly been conducted in large cities, particularly in China, the USA and some European countries. This study examined the provision of urban ecosystem services in a Swedish municipality context, based on interviews with municipal stakeholders in strategic management and planning from six municipalities and a review of existing publications readily available to practitioners. The analysis focused on (1) the ecosystem services explicitly covered, (2) whether multifunctionality was covered and specific synergies and trade-offs identified and, (3) the spatial scale and context used for ecosystem services (valuation/mapping, planning, design or maintenance) in practical application. The results showed that regulatory services are very much the focus in municipal operations as well as in publications available to practitioners. This is reflected in the implementation of the concept through problem solving often related to regulatory services, using multifunctionality and win-win situations in ecosystem service supply. These findings contribute to the growing body of work exploring how the concept of ecosystem services is adapted and utilised in practice.

Super platforms, big data, and competition law: the Japanese approach in contrast with the USA and EU

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Takigawa
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Competition Law Enforcement ◽  
Essential Facility ◽  
Share Data ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Data Portability ◽  
Efficiency Effects

ABSTRACT This article examines antitrust issues concerning digital platforms equipped with big data. Recent initiatives by the Japanese competition agency are highlighted, comparing them with those by the USA and EU competition authorities. First examined is whether competition among platforms would result in a select few super platforms with market power, concluding that AI with machine learning has augmented the power of super platforms with strong AI-capability, leading to increased importance of merger control over acquisitions by platforms. Next scrutinized is the argument for utility-regulation to be imposed on super platforms, concluding that wide support is limited to data portability, leaving competition law as the key tool for addressing super platforms, its core tool being the provision against exclusionary conduct, enforcement of which, initially, concerns whether to order super platforms to render their data accessible to their rivals. Passive refusal-to-share data needs to be scrutinized under the essential facility doctrine. Beyond passive refusal, platforms’ exclusionary conduct requires competition agencies to weigh the conduct’s exclusionary effects against its efficiency effects. Finally addressed is exploitative abuse, explaining its relation to consumer protection, concluding that competition law enforcement on exploitative abuse should be minimized, since it accompanies risk of over-enforcement.

scholarly journals Unfolding Algorithms

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Bilel Benbouzid
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Moral Vision ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Method Of Calculation ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
Cautious Interpretation ◽  
The University ◽  
Two Sides

Predictive policing is a research field whose principal aim is to develop machines for predicting crimes, drawing on machine learning algorithms and the growing availability of a diversity of data. This paper deals with the case of the algorithm of PredPol, the best-known startup in predictive policing. The mathematicians behind it took their inspiration from an algorithm created by a French seismologist, a professor in earth sciences at the University of Savoie. As the source code of the PredPol platform is kept inaccessible as a trade secret, the author contacted the seismologist directly in order to try to understand the predictions of the company’s algorithm. Using the same method of calculation on the same data, the seismologist arrived at a different, more cautious interpretation of the algorithm's capacity to predict crime. How were these predictive analyses formed on the two sides of the Atlantic? How do predictive algorithms come to exist differently in these different contexts? How and why is it that predictive machines can foretell a crime that is yet to be committed in a California laboratory, and yet no longer work in another laboratory in Chambéry?  In answering these questions, I found that machine learning researchers have a moral vision of their own activity that can be understood by analyzing the values and material consequences involved in the evaluation tests that are used to create the predictions.

scholarly journals The Electric Bicycle: Worldwide Research Trends

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Salmeron-Manzano ◽  
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro
Keyword(s):  
Large Population ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Personal Mobility ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Electric Bicycle ◽  
Sporting Goods ◽  
Major Trend ◽  
Global Research

The bicycle has gone from being an old-fashioned recreational product to a less polluting means of transport and a compact, ultra-light personal mobility tool. This is how electrical bicycles will be used as the pillar that could support individual public transport in large cities worldwide. The objective of this manuscript is to detect how worldwide research on the electric bicycle is being developed, and, especially, around which scientific domains is it clustered, to finally identify the main trends in the field. This study has been carried out based on the Scopus database, where all the publications related to the topic of the electric bicycle have been analyzed up to the year 2017. ¨Therefore, research on the global research trends of this topic was conducted. Its evolution over time shows that since 2008 the growth of publications is much higher than in the previous period. The main countries are China and the USA, and it can be inferred that there are two major trend countries with high environmental awareness, which also have a large population and that the electric bicycle is a suitable and sustainable form of transport. Among the main scientific fields, engineering leads in research. The keyword analysis shows that the central theme is electric, then battery and motor stand out. A community detection was applied to detect the six main clusters of this research, largely dedicated to the following topics: Transportation–Environment, Electrical Engineering, Safety, Batteries, Sporting Goods–Urban Planning, and Mechanical Engineering. This manuscript shows that global research trends about the electric bicycle are increasing, and that it should be considered a means of sustainable urban transport and will therefore contribute to energy saving and sustainable energy.

The Location of Services Involved with International Trade

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
K O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Port Development ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Producer Service ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Service Location ◽  
Statistical Record ◽  
Selection Of

Services that link buyer and seller across nations and continents have long been a part of city and port development, but have not attracted much research interest, perhaps because they remain (like their statistical record) ‘invisible’. Technical and structural change in the organisation of shipping, reflected largely in containerisation, have changed the context for these services and they have responded in a variety of ways. Data in this paper trace the location of a selection of these services in the USA and Australia, indicating a separation between services and negotiations on aspects of trade services, and new patterns of physical activity in trade. It is suggested that this separation may be facilitated by the standardisation that has come with containerisation, the importance of intercorporate linkages, the role of official markets, and the application of modern communication technology. These aspects account for the clustering of services in large cities and their separation from day-to-day trade business, and could provide insights for producer-service location in general. The paper indicates the need for survey work to test these ideas.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document