Artificial Intelligence: Safety Not Surveillance coalition calls for ban on predictive policing
The #SafetyNotSurveillance coalition – a group of organisations working at the intersections of human rights, racial justice and technology – have written to the Home Secretary calling for safeguards against the harms of AI systems in policing, including an outright ban on predictive policing and biometric surveillance systems.
In last week’s King’s Speech, the Government said that it would, “seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models”.
Sara Chitseko, Pre-Crime Programme Manager for Open Rights Group, said:
“In the UK, and around the world, police already use AI systems to “predict” our likelihood of committing future crimes, to surveil and control us in public spaces, to profile us and to make decisions that determine our access to vital public services, including welfare, education and housing.
“AI and automated systems have been proven to magnify discrimination and inequality in policing. Of particular concern are so-called ‘predictive policing’ and biometric surveillance systems which are disproportionately used to target racialised, working class and migrant communities.
“These systems must be banned if we are to protect the right to be presumed innocent. Without strong regulation, police will continue to use AI systems which infringe our rights and exacerbate structural power imbalances, while big tech companies profit.”
The letter calls for an outright ban on predictive policing’ systems which use AI, data and algorithms to identify, profile and target individuals, groups and locations, attempting to ‘predict’ certain criminal acts, or the ‘risk’ of certain criminalised acts. The signatories have called for all other data-based, automated and AI systems in policing should be regulated to protect people’s rights and safeguard against harms. A legislative framework creating transparency, accountability, accessibility and redress should underpin the use of all data-based, automated and AI systems in policing.
Read the open letter
The #SafetyNotSurveillance coalition writes to the Home Secretary to ban ‘predictive policing’ systems.
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