Topical news and op-ed articles

  • 2013-10-30 | SF Weekly News | Darwin Bond-Graham and Ali Winston | All Tomorrow's Crimes: The Future of Policing Looks a Lot Like Good Branding
    A critical story about how PredPol is promoting its software and generating good press for itself. It also notes that veteran cops and prominent academics are skeptical about this latest crime-fighting gadget. Some say predictive policing doesn't work.
  • 2013-10-22 | MIT Technology Review | Evgeny Morozov | The Real Privacy Problem
    As Web companies and government agencies analyze ever more information about our lives, it’s tempting to respond by passing new privacy laws or creating mechanisms that pay us for our data. Instead, we need a civic solution, because democracy is at risk.
  • 2013-09-30 | PolitiForum.no | Erik Inderhaug | Framtidens forebygging
    Advertorial for IBM stating that «Predictive policing» will make it simpler to predict where and when crime will arise. (In Norwegian) Repeats claims (by IBM) about the CRUSH program's success in Memphis, USA. It is claimed that serious crime is reduced by 30 % and violent crime by 15 %. Links to promotional videos from IBM.
  • 2013-09-15 | Al-Jazeera America | Meredith Kile | Predictive policing technology lowers crime rates in US cities
    Interviews about the use of PredPol in Santa Cruz, CA, ans Seattle, WA. Program is said to be successful in reducing crime in bot areas.
  • 2013-09-08 | CaliforniaReport.org | Aaron Mendelson | Can LAPD Anticipate Crime With 'Predictive Policing'?
    News item reporting on the use of PredPol by LAPD’s Foothill Division station. It also includes an interview with mathematician George Mohler, inventor of the algorithm underlying PredPol.
  • 2013-08-21 | Chicago Tribune | Jeremy Gorner | Chicago police use 'heat list' as strategy to prevent violence
    With the help of mathematical analysis, Chicago police hope to home in on people it believes are most at risk of shooting someone or being shot themselves. The strategy calls for warning those on the heat list individually that further criminal activity, even for the most petty offenses, will result in the full force of the law being brought down on them.
  • 2013-08-14 | BBC | Predicting crime 'cut Medway street violence by 6%'
    News report on a four-month trial in Medwey (an urban area in Kent, UK, composed of towns Chatham, Gillingham og Rochester, population about 250 000) of PredPol (a program developed in Los Angeles, USA). Kent Police claims use of program to deploy officers to predicted hot-spots reduced Medway street violence in by 6 %.
  • 2013-07-19 | DOCA.org.uk | Predictive policing: A promising tool for burglary prevention
    A copy of the news report with the same title published by PoliceOracle.org that does not require registering an account.
  • 2013-07-16 | PoliceOracle.com | Jasmin McDermott | Predictive policing: A promising tool for burglary prevention
    Dedicated foot patrols and target hardening equipment tested on high burglary areas in two forces reveal promising gains in interventions. The use of foot patrols as well as home safety equipment in areas where academic research predicts will be targeted by burglars has seen a significant drop in offences, early findings have suggested.
  • 2013-06-12 | WashingtonsBlog.com | The Dirty Little Secret About Mass Surveillance: It Doesn’t Keep Us Safe
    A summary of recent reports that points out the technical shortcoming of the mass surveillance methods currently used by the NSA.