Tom Cruise runs in a scene from the film'Minority Report', 2002. Back in 2002, the science fiction film Minority Report once again reignited futuristic imaginations about a world and police state gone too far. At the time, the movie inspired plenty of speculation about the future of our society, how computers would interact with us, and how law enforcement would be carried out proactively based on intent. In the movie, they combined technology with the psychic abilities of the "precogs," to proactively prevent crimes. The precogs had the ability to predict when crimes were about to be committed ahead of time, enabling law enforcement to act early.

Zimbabwe's commonest crimes include robbery, petty theft, vehicle burglary, home invasion, and smash-and-grab vehicle break-ins. The Zimbabwe security services have made a lot of efforts to make society as safe as possible but the nation's crime remains prevalent. Zimbabwe's answer to these kinds of crimes is technology; our hidden weapon. Universities in Zimbabwe have students who are getting educated in Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) leading the way. These kinds of developments in AI and ML mean that technology has a growing role to play in upholding the law.

It is important to understand the basic nature of machines like computers in order to understand what machine learning is. Computers are devices that follow instructions, and machine learning brings in an interesting outlook, where a computer can learn from the experience without the need for programming. Machine learning transports computers to another level where they can learn intuitively in a similar manner as humans. It has several applications, including virtual assistants, predictive traffic systems, surveillance systems, face recognition, spam, malware filtering, fraud detection, and so on. The police can utilize machine learning effectively to resolve the challenges that they face.

A US university's claim it can use facial recognition to "predict criminality" has renewed debate over racial bias in technology. Harrisburg University researchers said their software "can predict if someone is a criminal, based solely on a picture of their face". The software "is intended to help law enforcement prevent crime", it said. But 1,700 academics have signed an open letter demanding the research remains unpublished. One Harrisburg research member, a former police officer, wrote: "Identifying the criminality of [a] person from their facial image will enable a significant advantage for law-enforcement agencies and other intelligence agencies to prevent crime from occurring."

A US university's claim it can use facial recognition to "predict criminality" has renewed debate over racial bias in technology. Harrisburg University researchers said their software "can predict if someone is a criminal, based solely on a picture of their face". The software "is intended to help law enforcement prevent crime", it said. But 1,700 academics have signed an open letter demanding the research remains unpublished. One Harrisburg research member, a former police officer, wrote: "Identifying the criminality of [a] person from their facial image will enable a significant advantage for law-enforcement agencies and other intelligence agencies to prevent crime from occurring."

To many, the use of Artificial Intelligence to prevent crimes and aid in sentencing criminals may seem like a scene from a science fiction movie. However, police departments in the United Kingdom - including Durham, Kent, and South Wales - are already using facial recognition and behavioural software to prevent a crime before it occurs. Computer-driven evaluation frameworks are being used to inform custodial and sentencing decisions. The technology offers both huge promise and the prospect of dark dystopia in seemingly equal measure. This raises several ethical questions.

This week Athena Security announces the successful launch and implementation of the world's first artificial intelligence security camera system capable of instantly and accurately recognizing an active shooter before they shoot, alerting law enforcement and verbally alerting the assailant that Police are en route. Historically, security cameras are only as useful as the people actively monitoring them. Without real time oversight, unattended security camera feeds only help to piece together crimes after the fact. Past AI and computer vision technologies provided far too many false positives and therefore could not be deployed because they would erroneously alert law enforcement every couple of minutes rendering them useless. Athena Security's AI-powered system provides authorities with real time video footage helping speed police and medical aid to any type of crime scene decreasing fatalities with faster response times.

This week Athena Security announces the successful launch and implementation of the world's first artificial intelligence security camera system capable of instantly and accurately recognizing an active shooter before they shoot, alerting law enforcement and verbally alerting the assailant that Police are en route. Historically, security cameras are only as useful as the people actively monitoring them. Without real time oversight, unattended security camera feeds only help to piece together crimes after the fact. Past AI and computer vision technologies provided far too many false positives and therefore could not be deployed because they would erroneously alert law enforcement every couple of minutes rendering them useless. Athena Security's AI-powered system provides authorities with real time video footage helping speed police and medical aid to any type of crime scene decreasing fatalities with faster response times.

The government and the police are discussing the idea of developing a computer system that can predict street crime by utilizing big data and artificial intelligence. They hope such a system will be able to show them where and how to take greater measures to prevent crime. Street crime prediction "has already achieved results in Europe and the United States," said Mami Kajita, who established the data-analysis company Singular Perturbations Inc. last year in hopes of developing a Japanese version of the methods used in the United States. In some parts of America, the police have ramped up patrols in areas where AI-based systems predicted crime was more likely to happen, achieving a reduction of 20 percent on average, Kajita said. A more cautionary tale comes from China, where the government is racing ahead to use big data and facial recognition technology to surveil the population.

Authorities in China are exploring predictive analytics, facial recognition, and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help prevent crime in advance. Based on behavior patterns, authorities will notify local police about potential offenders. Cloud Walk, a company headquartered in Guangzhou, has been training its facial recognition and big data rating systems to track movements based on risk levels. Those who are frequent visitors to weapons shops or transportation hubs are likely to be flagged in the system, and even places like hardware stores have been deemed "high risk" by authorities. A Cloud Walk spokesman told The Financial Times, "Of course, if someone buys a kitchen knife that's OK, but if the person also buys a sack and a hammer later, that person is becoming suspicious." Cloud Walk's software is connected to the police database across more than 50 cities and provinces, and can flag suspicious characters in real time.