One Step Closer To Minority Report: We Know Where Crime Will Happen
from the time-to-go-somewhere-else dept
Earlier this year, we had a story that claimed some police had used some data mining software to predict a mugging, though the details on the story were incredibly vague -- leading to plenty of questions about just how legitimate the story really was. However, police are clearly interested in this Minority Report-style software. Police in Richmond, Virginia, are now getting their very own data mining solution to help them predict crime, though it's less about predicting single instances of crime, but noting general patterns and suggesting where police might want to go. It's not a bad idea to use the data in this way, but you always get concerned that when people become too reliant on the data, mistakes tend to happen.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Even more jobs for statisticians
Anybody willing to take the prerequisite courses can go to grad school for stats -- you don't have to have a math degree. The programs are in various names like statistics, biostatistics, actuarian sciences, industrial optimization, survey methodology, etc.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Everything has some form of pattern.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
Data and a little geocoding can reveal all types of trends.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
Those programmers have to have some statistical knowledge (or at least a stats text book handy), but the average user doesn't.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Usual Suspects
S: He’s a villain, sir.
O: A villain ...
S: And a jailbird.
O: (exploding) I know he’s a jailbird, Savage. He’s down in the cells now. We are holding him on a charge of possession of curly black hair and thick lips.
S: Well, ... well, well, well there you are, sir.
O: You arrested him, savage!
S: (stupidly pleased) Thank you, sir.
O: Savage, would I be correct in assuming that Mr Cudoogo is a coloured gentleman?
S: Well, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed, sir.
Constable Savage script
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
Thanks for the afternoon chuckle.
[ link to this | view in thread ]