THANKS! CLICK TO SHARE
Call on the Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, Diana Johnson MP, to prohibit automated and ‘predictive’ policing systems in England and Wales.
Call on the Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, Diana Johnson MP, to prohibit automated and ‘predictive’ policing systems in England and Wales.
Ban “Crime Predicting” Technology by Police
Can you predict the future? Police think they can. By racially profiling communities across the UK.
Police forces are using technology to try to “predict crime” - with little regard for our human rights. Restricting our rights in this way does not keep us safe.
We need to stop automated racism.
No matter our postcode or the colour of our skin, we all want our families and communities to live safely and thrive.
But right now, almost three-quarters of UK police forces are using technology to “predict crime”.
These technologies have consequences. The future they are creating is one where technology decides that our neighbours are criminals, purely based on the colour of their skin or their socio-economic background.
Policing in the UK is already biased against minoritised communities, with many forces accepting they’re institutionally racist. So when they add data-driven technology, we get automated racism.
These tools to “predict crime” harm us all by treating entire communities as potential criminals, making society more racist and unfair.
Governments across the UK must prohibit the use of these technologies. Right now, they can demand transparency on how these systems are being used. People and communities subjected to these systems must have the right to know about them and have meaningful routes to challenge policing decisions made using them.
These discriminatory and racist systems must be banned.
In February 2025, Amnesty International UK published a report, Automated Racism, outlining how automated and ‘predictive’ policing violates many rights and its use is in breach of the UK’s national and international human rights obligations, including:
- Right not to be discriminated against
- The use of these systems by police results in, directly and indirectly, racial profiling, and the disproportionate targeting of Black and racialised people and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds
- Right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence
- It targets people and groups before they have actually offended, which risks infringing on the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
- Right to privacy
- This is indiscriminate mass surveillance. Mass surveillance can never be proportionate interference with the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.
- Freedom of association
- People who live and reside in areas targeted by predictive policing will seek to avoid those areas as a result, leading to a chilling effect.