AI can help catch criminals, whatever 'experts' say – Tom Wood

Fingerprints, DNA and CCTV were all resisted when they were introduced as crime-fighting tools, so it's no surprise that self-appointed experts are making a fuss about the use of artificial intelligence by police, writes Tom Wood. Following the theme of'Groundhog Day' in our political world, I was drawn to a recent story about an ongoing battle to block technological advances in profiling and crime prevention on ethical grounds. West Midlands Police, on behalf of English forces, is trialling a scheme called the National Analytics Solution, which will use cutting-edge artificial intelligence to analyse data with a view to predicting crime hotspots and offending patterns. After all, it's only a'techie' way of doing what local police collators have been doing for 100 years. At a basic level, it's common sense, most crime is petty and committed by young men, therefore the more young men in your community, the more crime.