UK police trialing ‘Minority Report’ software

Two police forces in the UK are trialing IBM predictive analytics software that many are comparing to the technology used in the sci-fi flick Minority Report.

The software has already been used over in the US to good effect by the Memphis Police Department (MPD), which created the Criminal Reduction Utilising Statistical History (Crush) system using IBM analytics.

The two police forces testing the technology in the UK have remained unnamed, according to the Guardian.

In the MPD's case, Crush has been used to analyse past and present crime records to identify hot spots so officers can be deployed more effectively.

Not only can it gather these records in seconds, it is also able to handle incoming data from patrols.

"As crime becomes more sophisticated, law enforcement must become even smarter by adopting advanced crime prevention tactics made possible with IBM predictive analytics software," said Colonel James Harvey, commander of Ridgeway Station at MPD.

In one case from January, a targeted effort with the software led to over 50 arrests of drug dealers in the Hollywood-Springdale area of Memphis, which has seen a 36.8 per cent reduction in crime.

Overall, the software has helped MPD reduce serious crime by more than 30 per cent, while violent crimes have gone down by 15 per cent since 2006.

"The Memphis Police Department is changing the face of law enforcement. By analysing past criminal behaviour patterns and then mapping their anticipated future occurrence, police departments are able to deliver critical real-time information to the field, allowing for appropriate deployment of forces," added Anne Altman, general manager for the public sector at IBM.