What if the police could know in advance where a crime was going to occur? This possibility is becoming real with a new artificial intelligence tool developed by a team of American researchers.

Washington, D.C., 2054: mutant humans foresee crimes and enable the arrest of future perpetrators thanks to their gift of precognition. Such is the premise of Minority Report, released in 2002, a film that constantly oscillates between utopia and the ultimate nightmare of a society under total control.

Chicago, 2022: Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his team of researchers have developed an algorithm capable of predicting, one week in advance, the level of criminal activity likely to emerge in a given area—with an accuracy rate of nearly 90%.

Artificial intelligence, a new prophet?

To achieve this astonishing level of precision, the urban area was first divided into 300-meter-wide grids. The researchers then trained their algorithm on crime data from the city covering the years 2014 to 2016. The system successfully forecasted the level of crime for the following weeks. These results were consistently replicated in the seven other major U.S. cities included in the study.

Given such results, the key question now is how this type of modeling should be used. While it could serve as a preventive tool to ensure the safety of people and property, could it not also become a relentless instrument of social control, particularly by targeting certain populations?

This is the main criticism raised in the United States, where a previous algorithm had already been tested by the Chicago Police Department. Designed to identify individuals most at risk of being involved in a shooting, it produced a list in which 56% of those flagged were African Americans between the ages of 20 and 29—creating, according to some, a genuine risk of racial discrimination.

Focus on places rather than suspects.

For researcher Ishanu Chattopadhyay, however, his algorithm presents a crucial difference: its predictions concern only geographic areas, not potential suspects. Its use could therefore contribute to the implementation of a genuine security policy in certain regions, going far beyond merely assisting police officers on the ground.

The studies conducted by this Chicago-based team further highlighted that arrest rates were higher in wealthier neighborhoods, indicating more intensive police activity. This, in turn, raises the question of whether another form of discrimination might be at play.

Installed in commercial aircraft since 1960, the black box made its debut on July 6, 2022, in newly manufactured vehicles across the European Union. While some perceive it as a veritable “spy device,” this system is above all a valuable source of information in cases of accidents, as well as in criminal or delinquent acts.

Driver drowsiness alerts, reverse detection systems, intelligent speed adaptation… In just a few years, cars have become technological jewels generally welcomed by drivers. The introduction of this so-called black box, however—reminiscent of the flight recorders in aircraft cockpits—has generated far less enthusiasm, with critics judging the device overly intrusive.

Recording limited to a few data points.

Such concerns are unfounded, as this equipment is not intended to monitor the every move of drivers and passengers during a trip. Unlike the recorders installed in aircraft, it does not capture any sound or conversation. Nor can the data be used to identify the individuals on board or to assess driving behavior—for example, by tracking the frequency of acceleration or braking.

Its purpose? Quite simply, to analyze what happened in the event of an accident. To that end, the device records purely objective data such as speed, collision force, accelerator or brake pressure, the activation of safety systems (ABS), and seat belt usage. The electronic chip responsible for recording these data stores only the 30 seconds prior to the accident and the 15 seconds following it.

Access strictly reserved for authorities

There is no question of sharing these data with insurance companies, as some users fear. Only judicial authorities or research institutes will be authorized to access them in order to clarify the circumstances of accidents that often have tragic consequences, as illustrated by a case that occurred on the Paris ring road.

On February 21, 2013, following a 150 km/h police chase, Malamine Traoré, then 22 years old, crashed his Range Rover SUV into a marked BAC police vehicle, instantly killing two police officers and seriously injuring a third.

Beyond his numerous prior convictions for traffic offenses, his lack of a driver’s license, and a blood alcohol level of 1.4 g/L, the analysis of the black box installed in the vehicle demonstrated that the driver never lifted his foot from the accelerator nor attempted any evasive maneuver, even though he consistently denied deliberately crashing into the police car. He was tried for “intentional violence against public officials resulting in death without intent to kill” and was sentenced on appeal to 15 years of criminal imprisonment.There is little doubt that in the future, these automotive data recorders, along with other material evidence related to vehicles, will contribute to solving numerous criminal and delinquent cases.