'Minority Report': Coming to a police station near you

Crime-predicting technology that is drawing comparisons to the science fiction film Minority Report is being tested in the US. Using cameras and sensors, the “pre-crime” system measures and tracks changes in a person’s body movements, the pitch of their voice and the rhythm of their speech.

It also monitors breathing patterns, blink rate and alterations in body heat, which are used to assess an individual’s likelihood to commit a crime. The Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) programme is already being tested on volunteers by the Department of Homeland Security.

The first test was carried out at an undisclosed location in the north-east. Ultimately, the system could be used not only at airports but at border crossings and any large-scale public events like sports matches or political conventions. But civil liberties groups have called it a “pseudo technological approach” and raised privacy concerns.

In the 2002 film Minority Report, Tom Cruise plays a police officer in a specialised “PreCrime” department where psychics predict people’s criminal intentions.

Details of the system were obtained through freedom of information laws by the Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington DC. A document they obtained said that “sensors will non-intrusively collect video images, audio recordings, and psychophysiological measurements”.