Police in Washington will begin using crime prediction software.
Police in Tacoma, Wash. will soon be receiving federally-funded cloud-based crime prediction software known as PREDPOL, short for predictive policing.
The program consists of a mathematical algorithm similar to the one used to predict earthquakes that will use five years’ worth of past crime data and sociological information about criminal behavior to predict where and when a future crime will likely take place, down to a 500-square-foot area.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, a six-month survey of the software produced a 36 percent drop in burglaries in the Foothill Division. PREDPOL is now in talks with police about purchasing the software in over 200 cities worldwide. The software creators point to decreasing budgets and police staff as the main reason behind the interest in the program.
Civil liberties advocates immediately questioned if the software would conflict with citizens’ privacy and whether or not the program would begin collecting data on specific individuals. “We have no plans to move anywhere close to the individual. You’ll – rightly – run into a variety of Constitutional problems almost immediately,” said PREDPOL's Director of Government Relations and Strategy Ryan Coonerty.
This system is only one of many crime prevention programs being dropped on the state of Washington.
The Seattle Police Department recently received a $5 million federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security to install 30 surveillance cameras on Seattle's popular waterfront area. The police say the cameras are needed to safeguard the Port of Seattle from sabotage or terrorist attacks. Despite these claims, some cameras were caught pointing inward, not towards the coast line after initially being installed. Assistant Police Chief Paul McDonagh claimed the incident was a mistake.
In light of Seattle's secret participation in a pilot program for TrapWire, a CCTV surveillance system that recognizes people from their face or walk, funded by the DHS as well, the possibility of these camera's being used to compile data on individuals is very possible.
In fact, a recently discovered Seattle Police diagram appears to show that the SPD Headquarters, Fusion Center MMIS (Department of Homeland Security), Coast Guard, SPD Harbor Patrol, Seattle Fire Department Headquarters and SFD Marshall have the ability to control and receive certain video feeds within the city. Some believe the diagram reveals that Seattle Police officers can use the cameras' panning and zooming features directly from their squad cars.
The state has however won some battles on the surveillance front. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was forced to end the police drone program after outraged residents spoke out. New legislation has even been introduced to control how, when and why drones are used within the state. McGinn has also reportedly ended the city's plan to install as many as 52 mobile gunshot locator microphone/video units.
An anarchist group in Washington has recently gone as far as removing and destroying up to 17 cameras in response to the increased surveillance.
Pre-crime technology such as "lie-detecting camera's" are also set to be used in airport interrogations as well as DHS-funded talking street lights that shout orders to pedestrians as well as record conversations.
The Blue Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History (CRUSH) was developed in 2006 by the University of Memphis. The predictive analytical software was created with an IBM program that could determine “hot spots” for more rapid deployment of police officers.
The Real Time Crime Center allows police officers to scan a particular area. A red flashing light will appear to signal that a crime may happen within the near future.
CRUSH combines “crime and arrest data, then combining it with weather forecasts, economic indicators, and information on events such as paydays and concerts” to produce predictive results.
SkyCop® is available in any city for monitoring locations within the city that have a high potential for criminal activity. The units are typically installed on poles, mobile trailers, or buildings and can monitor and record activities with camera coverage capabilities of 360 degrees at distances up to several thousand feet. SkyCop® has the capability of locally recording video and audio, which can be downloaded by a wireless or hardwired network. The SkyCop remote video and mobile trailers allow law enforcement to be strategic in their surveillance efforts and to cast a bigger net of policing presence in more locales. SkyCop ® collects data that pinpoints where the hotspots are so MPD can allocate the needed resources to fight crime as the criminal moves. All critical information is transmitted to an “interoperable regional data-sharing center that is based on a multi-pronged approach” according to Lt. Ken Shackleford with the Memphis Police Department, and “this approach is data sharing, video surveillance, and crime analysis”. SkyCop is scalable and flexible and can start from basic equipment and software such as remote camera systems up to a cutting-edge fusion center such as MPD’s Real Time Crime Center. Surveillance equipment can be placed remotely as fixed units or can be attached to mobile trailers that allow officers to monitor activity from any vantage point. In addition, SkyCop offers several options for license plate recognition on police vehicles, digital recording systems, and wireless communications capabilities.
The ArcGIS System for law enforcement compiles information from the internet, cell phones, online mapping services and the geographic information system (GIS) servers. Connections to national and international databases centers down predictive possibilities in individual communities through intelligence and operational analysis.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft collaborated to create pre-crime and counterterrorism technology to aid federal intelligence and local law enforcement agencies domestic and international.
The Domain Awareness System (DAS) is a very sophisticated software technology that aggregates and analyzes public information in real time that will produce comprehensive reports to be used by NYPD to ascertain potential threats and pre-crime activity.
By utilizing smart cameras and license plate readers, combined with Microsoft technologies NYPD personnel can search suspects, allegedly suspicious packages, and any other information at their disposal to control possible criminal action in NY.
Graphical interface, environmental sensors and law enforcement databases will be interlaced so that crime analysis can effectively allocate proper man-power and improve response to potential situations. This creates a collusion of information for the NYPD to use in real-time.
Over 3,000 CCTV cameras will be connected to the DAS that are spread throughout NYC.
As part of the agreement, 30% of the revenue on Microsoft’s future sales of DAS will be redirected to fund more pre-crime efforts by NYC. In addition, the NYPD will confer with Microsoft on their use of the DAS and any innovative revisions of the software that comes from real-time use. This shared knowledge is meant to consistently improve the technology; which makes the NYPD a beta-testing ground for the future of Big Brother surveillance technology.
The real-time analytics and situational awareness DAS generates is touted to improve public safety for New York residents. The New York Wireless Network, which is a high-speed, mission-critical wireless broadband infrastructure, will aid DAS to extend the ability of officers to survey average citizens on the streets.
The DAS will allow the NYPD to:
Gain real-time access to video feeds and all citizens arrest records as well as any 911 call wherein the potential suspect was named
Chronological and geospatial maps of citizen’s criminal history and patterns
Track cars related or associated with potential suspects
Retrieve information from various databases for appropriate deployment of resources
Review video feeds where potentially harmful packages are delivered
Connection to radiation detectors throughout the city and immediately alert the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative command center
In the interest of fighting terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Future Attribute Screening Technology project (FAST) that utilizes sensor technology to detect cues “indicative of mal-intent” defined as intent or desire to cause real harm.
By monitoring psychological and behavioral cues that are entered into real-time algorithms FAST can predict the probability of a crime being committed by any person. FAST was reported to be 70% accurate, according to field test research. However, the conclusions of the study are deceptive and reliant on the researcher’s foreknowledge of the intent of the individual being monitored.
In a DHS privacy impact assessment, FAST was tested on volunteers that were pre-sorted into groups wherein one group was “explicitly instructed to carry out a disruptive act, so that the researchers and the participant (but not the experimental screeners) already know that the participant has mal-intent.”
This fact lends to the strong possibility that FAST could be used to generate false positives that would make criminals out of average Americans.
http://www.examiner.com/article/tacoma-police-set-to-roll-out-federally-funded-crime-prediction-program
http://occupycorporatism.com/predictive-software-becoming-norm-in-reducing-crime-preventing-terrorism/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3000272/nypd-microsoft-launch-all-seeing-domain-awareness-system-real-time-cctv-license-plate-monito
Police enlist military predictive technology similar to what retailers like Wal-Mart use:
Wartime technology used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is increasingly making its way to U.S. cities and towns, changing the way police investigate crimes by focusing not where crimes have happened but where they most likely will happen next.
One of the latest technologies, called “geospatial predictive analytics,” has helped police chase copper thieves in Virginia and a strangler in Philadelphia — and enabled officers to deploy police smartly across the Washington region during the mysterious shootings of military installations in 2010.
“We were able to use the information in a good way to save taxpayers money rather than haphazardly throwing things against the wall and seeing if it sticks,” said Virginia State Police Capt. Steven W. Lambert of the Virginia Fusion Center, which coordinates statewide investigations, including the case of the five shootings at military buildings.
The technology initially was developed using satellite images and other data to help U.S. troops anticipate where explosives were buried in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is one in a string of wartime science applications — high-speed license plate readers, mobile fingerprint devices, facial recognition software — being used by police in local crime-fighting.
Predictive technology has been around for decades, going back to when the U.S. Air Force needed to anticipate when its machines and equipment would need replacement.
In an updated form, it is similar to what retailers such as Amazon and Wal-Mart use to anticipate buyer behavior, said Colleen McCue of DigitalGlobe, the private company that developed the technology and worked with law enforcement on the Melaku case.
Similar policing tactics are being used by the FBI and police departments across the country to get ahead of crime, including in the District, New York and New Jersey. The Virginia State Police recently used it to investigate copper thefts at Dominion Virginia Power facilities, finding that one of the key predictors of which site would be hit next was how close the sites were to scrap-metal dealers where the copper could be sold.
Police say they are employing the technology as they hunt for an arsonist on Virginia’s Eastern Shore blamed for 48 fires since November.
New Jersey’s Regional Operations Intelligence Center used it in 2010 when police were tracking a serial strangler in Philadelphia who killed three women. DNA ended up linking Antonio Rodriguez to the crimes, and he was convicted of murder last summer.
“It’s the future of law enforcement,” said Lambert, the Virginia investigator.
Another group called PredPol was started by California researchers who helped a police department in Santa Cruz predict crime to guide the department’s dwindling resources.
“In the last decade, we had a 30 percent increase in calls for service and a 20 percent decline in staff,” said Zach Friend, the department’s crime analyst at the time, who is now a member of the county’s board of supervisors. “We knew we weren’t going to get more cops on the street.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/police-enlist-war-tech-in-crime-fight/2013/02/18/0a9e18e2-6bc6-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_story.html