Can we predict when and where a crime will take place?

But can computer algorithms really help reduce crime? Imagine a gang of bank robbers arriving at their next heist, only to find an armed response unit already waiting on the corner. Or picture walking down a dark alley and feeling afraid, then seeing the reassuring blue lights of a police car sent to watch over you. Now imagine if all of this became possible thanks to mathematics. Ever since the Philip K Dick novel The Minority Report, which was later turned into a Tom Cruise blockbuster, was published in the 1950s, futurists and philosophers have grappled with the concept of "pre crime".