Minority Report: Now with more spreadsheets and guesswork
(2025/08/16)
- Reference: 1755333014
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/16/uk_to_use_ai_to/
- Source link:
The UK government has unveiled a scheme to use AI to "help police catch criminals before they strike."
UK officials insist 'murder prediction tool' algorithms purely abstract [1]READ MORE
It all sounds a bit Minority Report: the Tom Cruise film set in a dystopian future in which would-be criminals are apprehended before their crimes are committed thanks to psychics known as "precogs".
There's no psychic involvement this time. Instead, the [2]plan is to collate data to create detailed interactive crime maps to identify where crime is most likely to happen.
The tool, which is to be fully operational and "supported by AI" in 2030, will bring together data shared between police, councils, and social services. It will include criminal records, previous incident locations, and behavioral patterns of known offenders.
Prototypes, an element of the initial £4m investment, are due by April 2026, and the complete solution, which will cover England and Wales, is part of the UK government's £500 million R&D Missions Accelerator Programme.
[3]
UK Science and Technology Secretary Pete Kyle trilled: "Cutting-edge technology like AI can improve our lives in so many ways, including in keeping us safe, which is why we’re putting it to work for victims over vandals, the law-abiding majority over the lawbreakers."
[4]
[5]
Kyle will be familiar to Register readers as the politician who [6]claimed that anyone wanting overturn the UK's Online Safety Act – which includes requirements for tech companies to verify user ages before permitting certain content to be viewed – is "on the side of predators."
John Hayward-Cripps, the CEO of Neighbourhood Watch, welcomed the proposal: "The map will pool a wealth of valuable crime data and enable law enforcement to target their resources more effectively at a local level and help prevent further victims of crime."
[7]
Rebecca Bryant, CEO of [8]Resolve – a group professing expertise in tackling anti-social behavior – said, "This is a landmark moment for innovation in community safety. The Safer Streets mission and the Concentrations of Crime Data Challenge show a real commitment to harnessing technology for public good."
According to the UK government, the technology builds on existing Home Office work, "including sophisticated mapping technologies targeting knife crime hotspots."
[9]UK government swoons over OpenAI in legally meaningless love-in
[10]What will UK government workers do with an extra 26 minutes a day?
[11]Here we go again with more AI crime prediction for policing
[12]UK expands police facial recognition rollout with 10 new vans heading to a town near you
The general direction of travel was, however, not to everyone's delight. A spokesperson for Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties campaign group in the UK, told The Register : "The Government's plans for Minority Report-style policing are deeply chilling and dystopian.
"Treating people as data points to be tracked, monitored and profiled turns them into suspects by default, and relying on historic data risks amplifying existing biases within the criminal justice system.
"It is likely that vast amounts of sensitive personal data will be hoovered up to build these intrusive predictive policing tools. Instead of 'fixing the foundations' of policing, plans to monitor the public with Orwellian AI tools could erode our most basic rights and could lead to profound injustices."
[13]
We requested a definitive list of integrated systems from the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, including details on safeguarding citizen privacy and anonymity.
A spokesperson from UK Research and Innovation told The Register :
"Models will be informed by a range of systems and datasets, including crime incident databases, socio-demographic data sources, and online behavioural data platforms. These systems support analysis of high-crime concentration areas and socio-spatial mechanisms, enabling scalable insights and targeted prevention strategies."
As for privacy and anonymity, the governemnt mouthpiece claimed both would be "safeguarded through a robust ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework, including independent ethics board reviews, safeguarding protocols, and monthly evaluations. All data is handled under a comprehensive Data Management Plan, ensuring secure, ethical, and transparent data use, with strict anonymisation and consent procedures."
AI, we're told, "is just one component of the research.
"Models will include machine learning techniques for pattern recognition, clustering, and predictive analytics, tailored to socio-spatial crime data." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/uks_ministry_of_justice_algorithm_murders/
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ai-to-help-police-catch-criminals-before-they-strike
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://x.com/peterkyle/status/1950092871614230571
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.resolveuk.org.uk/about/who-we-are
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/openai_to_help_fix_nhs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/uk_government_study_ai_time_savings/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/01/argentina_crime_prediction/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/uk_expands_police_facial_recognition/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
UK officials insist 'murder prediction tool' algorithms purely abstract [1]READ MORE
It all sounds a bit Minority Report: the Tom Cruise film set in a dystopian future in which would-be criminals are apprehended before their crimes are committed thanks to psychics known as "precogs".
There's no psychic involvement this time. Instead, the [2]plan is to collate data to create detailed interactive crime maps to identify where crime is most likely to happen.
The tool, which is to be fully operational and "supported by AI" in 2030, will bring together data shared between police, councils, and social services. It will include criminal records, previous incident locations, and behavioral patterns of known offenders.
Prototypes, an element of the initial £4m investment, are due by April 2026, and the complete solution, which will cover England and Wales, is part of the UK government's £500 million R&D Missions Accelerator Programme.
[3]
UK Science and Technology Secretary Pete Kyle trilled: "Cutting-edge technology like AI can improve our lives in so many ways, including in keeping us safe, which is why we’re putting it to work for victims over vandals, the law-abiding majority over the lawbreakers."
[4]
[5]
Kyle will be familiar to Register readers as the politician who [6]claimed that anyone wanting overturn the UK's Online Safety Act – which includes requirements for tech companies to verify user ages before permitting certain content to be viewed – is "on the side of predators."
John Hayward-Cripps, the CEO of Neighbourhood Watch, welcomed the proposal: "The map will pool a wealth of valuable crime data and enable law enforcement to target their resources more effectively at a local level and help prevent further victims of crime."
[7]
Rebecca Bryant, CEO of [8]Resolve – a group professing expertise in tackling anti-social behavior – said, "This is a landmark moment for innovation in community safety. The Safer Streets mission and the Concentrations of Crime Data Challenge show a real commitment to harnessing technology for public good."
According to the UK government, the technology builds on existing Home Office work, "including sophisticated mapping technologies targeting knife crime hotspots."
[9]UK government swoons over OpenAI in legally meaningless love-in
[10]What will UK government workers do with an extra 26 minutes a day?
[11]Here we go again with more AI crime prediction for policing
[12]UK expands police facial recognition rollout with 10 new vans heading to a town near you
The general direction of travel was, however, not to everyone's delight. A spokesperson for Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties campaign group in the UK, told The Register : "The Government's plans for Minority Report-style policing are deeply chilling and dystopian.
"Treating people as data points to be tracked, monitored and profiled turns them into suspects by default, and relying on historic data risks amplifying existing biases within the criminal justice system.
"It is likely that vast amounts of sensitive personal data will be hoovered up to build these intrusive predictive policing tools. Instead of 'fixing the foundations' of policing, plans to monitor the public with Orwellian AI tools could erode our most basic rights and could lead to profound injustices."
[13]
We requested a definitive list of integrated systems from the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, including details on safeguarding citizen privacy and anonymity.
A spokesperson from UK Research and Innovation told The Register :
"Models will be informed by a range of systems and datasets, including crime incident databases, socio-demographic data sources, and online behavioural data platforms. These systems support analysis of high-crime concentration areas and socio-spatial mechanisms, enabling scalable insights and targeted prevention strategies."
As for privacy and anonymity, the governemnt mouthpiece claimed both would be "safeguarded through a robust ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework, including independent ethics board reviews, safeguarding protocols, and monthly evaluations. All data is handled under a comprehensive Data Management Plan, ensuring secure, ethical, and transparent data use, with strict anonymisation and consent procedures."
AI, we're told, "is just one component of the research.
"Models will include machine learning techniques for pattern recognition, clustering, and predictive analytics, tailored to socio-spatial crime data." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/uks_ministry_of_justice_algorithm_murders/
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ai-to-help-police-catch-criminals-before-they-strike
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://x.com/peterkyle/status/1950092871614230571
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.resolveuk.org.uk/about/who-we-are
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/openai_to_help_fix_nhs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/uk_government_study_ai_time_savings/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/01/argentina_crime_prediction/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/uk_expands_police_facial_recognition/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKBWtjSDfC_4SyVw9YRE0AAAAFc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Catkin
I can't possibly imagine anyone else who would want privacy.
45RPM
Agreed - privacy is a human right. But a previous version of this story misspelled “privacy” - so I was making a pedantic point. Which falls rather flat after the correction!
(Hey, El Reg, the misspelling is still in the RSS feed at the current time)
But have a thumbs up anyway.
Unintended consequences
David M
Inevitably the system will be hacked, enabling criminals to head for the predicted "low crime" areas, which will be minimally policed.
Prenatal screening
b0llchit
To keep our children and future society safe, the AI will be screening all unborn children and determine whether they will become juvenile delinquents, hooligans, normal criminals or lefties. Each of these instances, where such anomalies are detected, will result in involuntary abortion. No effort shall be spared to improve the safety of our children and our society.
Doctor Syntax
Bring back the village bobby who could work all that out with Real Intelligence.
Would a pirvacy campaigner be something like NAMBLA!?