Chicago PD creates PreCrime Watch List

02-21-2014 • Next News Network

Some analysts have long been troubled by the concept of predictive law enforcement. The Chicago Police Department is raising new concerns with just such a program. Under a $2 million grant awarded to the Chicago Police Department by the National Institute of Justice, the department enlisted an Illinois Institute of Technology professor to create a special algorithm. The algorithm gives law enforcement a list of people who are simply assumed of being highly likely to commit violent acts. The program's believers deny that it virtually indicts people before a crime has been committed. Nor do they believe it tramples privacy rights. However, the program resulted in the creation of the Chicago Police Department's "400 most dangerous people" list, even though you don't have to commit a crime to make it on the list.