Science & Technology

New police software can predict future crimes

By T.K. Randall
December 8, 2014 ·  16 comments

Image: Backlit Keyboard
Credit: Colin via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The concept uses special software that draws information from several sources of data to produce a realistic prediction of when and where a crime is most likely to occur.

The system is named "Precobs" ( Pre-Crime Observation System ) in a deliberate nod to the term "precog" used in the Steven Spielberg movie Minority Report which also explored the idea of stopping crimes before they happen.The real-life crime predicting software was developed by the Institute for pattern-based Prediction Technique in Oberhausen and looks at a number of factors to help it predict the next incident including the time and date of past crimes in a specific area.

The initial results of a trial to predict burglaries in Munich and Nuremberg were deemed "promising" however it isn't clear whether the system will ever see mainstream use.

Source: Phys.org | Comments (16)

Tags: Minority Report, Crime, Prediction