Issue link: http://lawandordermag.epubxp.com/i/139048
SPECIAL REPORT Precrime Detecting is one matter, but the use of sensors that could detect physical changes in an individual will raise challenges in courts, politics, police methods, health care, and, yes, civilized society. Proponents will argue that sensors could spot someone about to commit a crime, but just how "public" is one's pulse, voice, perspiration, facial expression, eye movements, body movement changes, breathing, skin temperature, pupil width, and gazes, and to what, if any, degree can such physical traits be freely observed, measured and acted upon by "authority?" There is also a danger of use of such data and the false positives it will inevitably engender. More questions will arise about how the data will be stored, for how long, and who oversees the erasing of the data and any false positives. The controversy surrounding precrime detecting was spotlighted with Mr. Dick's short story, and with Mr. Spielberg's version of it for the screen. Other authors and flmmakers have brought to the fore characters who are so well-trained and skilled that they are able to disguise their reactions and expressions to avoid detection—yet another question to consider because there would be such people in reality, too, capable of avoiding precrime detection. There is yet another knotty problem in precrime detecting— that of moving from arrest for a crime and exploring the question of intent, whether deliberate, reckless or negligent, to scenarios THOMSON REUTERS CLEAR PRE-CRIME SOFTWARE By Stephenie Slahor www.clear.thomsonreuters.com Thomson Reuters has created "CLEAR®", an investigative suite that can be used for pre-crime detecting. The company recently released a research white paper done by its Fraud Prevention and Investigation unit. The white paper explores the growth, use, and legal and privacy challenges of pre-crime detecting, and examines the use of such capabilities in the forecasting of criminal activity. The white paper, titled "Technology Fuels New Advances and Challenges in Predictive Policing," is available on their website. The paper highlights the growth of predictive policing, including CLEAR, the Thomson Reuters investigative suite not only for law enforcement agencies, but also for fnancial institutions, corporate security and others needing intelligence about people and/or companies via live gateways of real-time data for historical and current information. CLEAR has both public and proprietary records, arrest and incarceration records, photo lineups, work affliations data, and other resources, and the methodology of its "Web Analytics" to search and categorize social media, blogs, news sites and watch lists. Such public and proprietary records are then integrated into the user's systems or searched via online platforms. Such integration can be done with large-volume batch capabilities and batch alerting functionality to identify and intercept individuals and/or organizations likely to participate in criminal activity. In essence, pre-crime detecting is the result of data analysis, using a variety of resources including technology, mapping, software platforms and computing systems to winnow down to the information needed for a particular investigation. Thomson Reuters notes that some believe that pre-crime or predicting policing is merely doing policing in a quicker fashion, but others feel that the use of new technology places departments in a more analytical mode in collecting, organizing and acting on data. In other words, there is a plethora of data, but it must be put into a more useful and/or accessible format in order to be predictive. Akin to clues that can range from the obvious to the 34 LAW and ORDER I June 2013 Photo Credit: CLEAR® application, Thomson Reuters. almost imperceptible, data needs to linked, sifted and sorted to be useful enough to offer investigative momentum to the user. A nation's laws, the presence of police, and the solid existence of a civilized society are deterrents to criminal activity, but Thomson Reuters believes that systems such as CLEAR add technology to the mix of deterrents. The company also recognizes that legal and privacy challenges to such technology, though, will increase the need for better training of investigators using the technology, and will multiply Constitutional legal challenges to the use of such technology against someone who is not under the required "probable cause" for investigation. In addition, the white paper recognizes the public perception that offcer training, insight and experience may be jeopardized by too much reliance on technology instead of human intelligence.