Fighting crime with artificial intelligence: The first predictive policing software to prevent crime is born.
Predictive policing: The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of the Interior are working to develop “Giove”, an algorithm capable of predicting home burglaries, commercial and bank robberies, fraud against vulnerable groups, and sexual violence and harassment.
The system will be reviewed by the data protection authority before being implemented in all Italian police stations, probably within a year.
Predictive policing: What is the Giove System?
The evolution of investigative techniques has led to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to fight crime in innovative ways. The Italian police are working on software that can “predict” thefts, robberies, harassment and other crimes.
“Giove” will be used in all Italian police stations. It is the new project of the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior and the State Police, which aims to “predict” the places and times where crimes might occur. Specifically, those that affect daily life the most and cause greater social alarm, as Il Sole-24 Ore reported.
Within a year, all Italian police stations are expected to have “Giove”, which is technically described as “a system of automated processing and analysis to support police activities”. According to Il Sole-24 Ore, this definition “conceals the ambitious goal of the project, which is being developed by the Ministry of the Interior’s Public Security Department: the first ‘predictive policing’ system, intended for police stations throughout Italy to ‘prevent and suppress’ crimes with a significant social impact. Investigators will be able to rely on an artificial intelligence algorithm – controlled and managed by state police officers – to support preliminary investigations. The aim is to ‘predict’ places and times where crimes might occur, especially those that most affect people’s daily lives, but also the most brutal ones: burglaries in homes, robberies in commercial premises and banks, fraud against vulnerable groups, as well as sexual violence and harassment”.
How it works
Giove is designed to identify and predict potential crimes by linking crimes committed at different times and places. For example, in the case of a series of thefts or robberies committed by a few individuals, Giove can use data analysis to ‘predict’ further crimes that might be committed by the same criminals.
To work effectively, Giove requires high quality and large amounts of data, known as input. In this respect, crime reporting takes on a new strategic function. As stated in the article published by the business daily, the State Police have already developed guidelines: once it is established that the report concerns one of the offences covered by Giove, the operator will have a series of questions to ask the victim in order to gather information about the “modus operandi” and the circumstances surrounding the commission of the crime, in order to facilitate the identification of similar incidents.
“In addition, two other aspects must be included in the system: any documentary files or images and videos related to the reported event, even if they do not allow the identification of the persons involved,” the article continues. “All the information on the geographical location, the temporal frequency and the nature of the crime is collected to ultimately improve the investigative analysis. On the basis of this data, the software will identify common circumstances in incidents that appear to be different and unrelated, proposing to the police operator links and series of crimes to predict future actions and thus guide the territorial distribution of police forces. In essence, Giove will make it possible to concentrate the presence of patrols and plainclothes officers in areas where crime is likely to occur”.
Privacy considerations
The use of such predictive systems in many parts of the world has raised issues of privacy and discrimination. The balance between security, privacy and the protection of fundamental freedoms and rights is a delicate one.
To address these concerns, the police are preparing an “impact assessment document” before implementing Giove, a necessary step in which the innovative software will be evaluated by the Data Protection Authority. This ensures that the system complies with legal and ethical standards and aims to prevent any potential misuse or infringement of individual rights. The process involves a thorough examination of how data is collected, stored and used, ensuring that personal information is protected and that the system operates transparently and fairly.
