Can governments stop murders before they happen? The UK is investigating a 'murder prediction' data program.
A new report prepared by the UK-based charity Statewatch states that the UK is attempting to develop a program that will determine the likelihood of a person being murdered by using police and government data.
The UK government is investigating whether it can develop a "murder prediction" program that will decide how likely it is for a person to be murdered using police and government data. Information about the project was gathered through various freedom of information (FOI) requests made by Statewatch, a UK-based civil liberties and human rights charity. In a letter sent to Statewatch, the UK Ministry of Justice (MOJ) stated that the Murder Prediction Project is a study aimed at "reviewing offender characteristics that increase the risk of committing murder" and "exploring the strength" of various datasets obtained from the National Police System and Greater Manchester Police to assess murder risk. The Ministry of Justice evaluated various databases to examine the personal and criminal history data of convicts with at least one conviction before January 1, 2015, assessments completed by probation officers regarding motivation, needs, and risks, incident data, alerts, and detention information. The FOI response provided to Statewatch states, "This study is for research purposes only," and notes that no assessment will affect any judicial outcome. The response also states, "As a result, no direct operational or policy changes will be made." Nevertheless, the data protection assessment indicated that a final report containing thoughts on "future operational application and/or policy development based on the study" would be prepared.
'Extremely Wrong' Sofia Lyall, a researcher at Statewatch, stated that the project would "reinforce and amplify the structural discrimination inherent in the criminal justice system." Lyall continued, "Creating an automatic tool to profile people as violent offenders is extremely biased, and using such sensitive data related to mental health, addiction, and disability is highly intrusive and concerning." Lyall called on the Justice Secretary to "immediately halt the development of this tool" and instead invest in "truly supportive rehabilitation services." Euronews Next reached out to the Ministry of Justice to clarify the project's objectives and whether it will be further developed, but did not receive an immediate response.