Ethical, legal and social challenges of Predictive Policing

• Autor(a) principal: Gstrein, Oskar J.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Bunnik, Anno, Zwitter, Andrej J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34632/catolicalawreview.2019.9126

While being an innovative way to use data and statistical methods to forecast the probability of crime and improve the effectiveness of resource deployment, Predictive Policing is based on many underpinning assumptions. The main ethical issues relating to PP revolve around such topics as data selection and machine bias, visualisation and interpretation of forecasts, transparency and accountability, time and effectiveness, as well as the problem of stigmatisation of individuals, environments and community areas. This translates into the legal domain and particularly into questions relating to privacy. The current legislative framework only partly addresses these issues, focusing mainly on individual rights and not on groups and how they might be affected. The main societal concerns relating to the use of Predictive Policing regard the establishment of trust. In this overview developed in cooperation with several European law enforcement agencies and members of civil society, we argue that, if Predictive Policing’s main target is to reduce crime rates, then, its effectiveness is still unclear.