Believe it or Not: The US & the UK are Assembling a Database of People that Predicts Crimes they Will Commit

I guess at this stage of the game, nothing should come as a surprise. Those who hold power have been going all out on the suppression/ oppression tip to smash on a growing population that  is increasingly angry and dissatisfied with the way things are being handled.. Here’s the latest efforts..Its called a Future Crime database..It sounds like something straight out of the movie Minority Report. As you peep it.. keep in mind the other thing that is going on..Operation Falcon which is a program designed by local police, the FBI and a number of other law enforcement types that will allow them to do mass arrests numbering in the thousands.  Yes folks this is going on in 2010. Shout out to the folks over at Holy Kaw for hipping us to this latest development

-Davey D-

How the Future Crime Database Will Work

by Shanna Freeman

Crime stories, especially stories about violent crimes, are often at the top of local news broadcasts. The news anchor explains the gory details of the murder, gives some background information about the victim and details the progress that law enforcement has made toward solving the crime . But imagine if the news anchor instead said something like, “Today John Doe was arrested by law enforcement for the future crime of murdering his wife.”

In the film “Minority Report,” people with precognition (a form of ESP in which a person learns information about future events) provide a law enforcement department known as Pre-Crime with the names of both murderer and murder victim. Images relating to the murders are transferred to a computer so that officers can examine them to get more information. Instead of being arrested for crimes, people in the film are arrested for crimes that they would have committed.

Although the movie takes place in 2054 and is based on a science-fiction story, some people believe that Pre-Crime prosecution could actually become commonplace in the future. The realm of the paranormal has not yet entered into it, but a real-life future crime database would instead be based on a number of elements that could be interpreted as pointing toward future criminal activity.

If you’ve committed a crime, some of your personal information is probably already stored in various databases. Exactly what is stored depends on where you live and the nature of your offense. But proponents of future crime databases suggest that they include information about people who have never committed a crime. As this idea has gotten more attention, so has the concern over potential civil liberties violations. In short, future-crime databases are highly controversial.

Before we speculate about all of the possibilities, let’s take a look at the databases that currently exist, starting with DNA databases in the United Kingdom and the United States.

National DNA Databases

In 2006, several crimes that had previously been unarrestable, such as not wearing a seat belt, were made arrestable. This increased the number of people  whose DNA samples were added to the NDNAD. Supporters said that more than twice as many crimes had been solved using DNA samples in 2005 as had been solved in 1999

 The United Kingdom's DNA database is now the second-largest in the world, with more than 4 million entries.

A number of those samples are from children, who have been arrested for everything from littering to skipping out on bus fares. According to Gary Pugh, the director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard, any child who exhibits behaviors that may indicate a potential for committing crime in the future should have a sample of his DNA included in the database. Pugh stated that “We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society”urce]

.In the United States, the FBI funds a nationwide system called NDIS (National DNA Index System). It officially began operating in 1994. It differs from the U.K. DNA Database in that smaller databases called CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) exist on state and local levels. Each crime laboratory in the country controls which information it shares with the national database. As of 2007, the NDIS had more than 4.5 million profiles.

Like the DNA database in the United Kingdom, the NDIS started as a way to index DNA samples from violent criminals (in this case, convicted sex offenders). Gradually it expanded to include almost all convicted felons. Some states collect DNA samples from all people who have been arrested, including children. In 2004, voters in California passed Proposition 69. Within that state, law enforcement officials can collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony, as well as certain misdemeanors. DNA can also be collected from illegal immigrants for any reason.

New DNA techniques and databases continue to evolve. A company called DNAPrint Genomics sells a product called DNAWitness, which locates Ancestry Informative Markers in DNA samples. The companies claim that these markers can break down the racial makeup of the DNA and help to narrow down suspects based on race. Although it can’t perfectly determine the race of a suspect, the owners of DNAPrint Genomics claim that the margin of error is negligible. Most law enforcement departments have yet to use DNAWitness, citing concerns over racial profiling.

DNA is just one aspect of building a future crime database. We’ll look at other types of criminal databases next.

continue reading here…. http://people.howstuffworks.com/future-crime-database2.htm

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