Researchers are reportedly using algorithms to analyze information on thousands of people, including criminals, in an attempt to identify those at the highest risk of committing serious violent crimes, according to The Guardian.
Initially called the “Murder Prediction Project,” the scheme has now been renamed the “Data Exchange to Improve Risk Assessment.” The UK Ministry of Justice hopes the project will help enhance public safety, but activists have labeled it “frightening and dystopian.”
The existence of the project was uncovered by the advocacy group Statewatch, and some of its functions were revealed through documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests.
Statewatch claims that data from people who have not been convicted of any crime will be used as part of the project, including personal information about self-harm and details about domestic abuse.
However, officials strongly deny this, insisting that only data from individuals with at least one criminal conviction will be used.
The government says the project is currently in the research phase, but activists argue that the data used could build biases in the predictions against ethnic minorities and the poor.
The project, authorized by the Prime Minister’s office when Rishi Sunak was in power, uses crime data from various official sources, including the Probation Service and data from Greater Manchester Police before 2015.
The types of information processed include names, dates of birth, gender, ethnic background, and a number that identifies individuals in the national police database.
Also to be shared—and listed under “special categories of personal data”—are “health markers that are expected to have significant predictive power,” such as data related to mental health, addiction, suicide, vulnerability, and self-harm, as well as disability.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated: “This project is being conducted solely for research purposes. It is designed using existing data held by HM Prison and Probation Service and police forces on convicted offenders to help us better understand the risk of individuals on probation continuing to commit serious violence. A report will be published in due course.”
