Homeland Security Testing “Pre-Crime” Detection Technology

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Sunday, October 09, 2011

Homeland Security Testing “Pre-Crime” Detection Technology

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been secretly working on technology that can tip off law enforcement about those planning to commit a crime.

Part profiling, part advanced mathematics, the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) is described as a “pre-crime” system by DHS. The program uses ethnicity, gender, breathing, eye tracking and heart rate to formulate a system for spotting criminals before they strike. According to the official description, the prototype contains “a suite of real-time, non-invasive sensor technologies to detect cues indicative of mal-intent (the intent or desire to cause harm).”

A classified DHS document reportedly indicated that the controversial idea is already being tested on some members of the public voluntarily.

If the technology proves reliable, the government might try using it at airport checkpoints, border crossings, sea ports or major sporting events.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

Homeland Security Moves Forward with 'Pre-Crime' Detection (by Declan McCullagh, cnet)

Privacy Impact Assessment for the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) Project (by Hugo Teufel III, Department of Homeland Security)

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Comments

Jimbob 13 years ago

i agree that "human subconsciousness is too unpredictable for this to work". what about zealots that are at peace with their desire to cause destruction and violence? this tech needs to be developed to track our government their cronies and the crimes they commit on an industrial scale on a daily basis. who says the krouts and commies have not over-run our country and are tightening their grip daily? fuck em, thats what i say. they can suck my balls, i don't have shit to hide. they can come over any time and have a chat!!!

Tom 13 years ago

"already being tested on some members of the public voluntarily" means; airport checkpoints, border crossings, sea ports or major sporting events. as these are already places people go to voluntarily.

joe 13 years ago

human subconsciousness is too unpredictable for this to work. too many possible variables and scenarios for this to be a 100 percent valid process. even 1 false positive is too many. they had that plot in minority report. it didn't work out in the movie due to one false positive. but alas, the truth of the reality is different. justice system has to fill quotas and show numbers in the newspapers to show that tax money that they are stealing from the rest of us is a valid "investment".

Anonymous 13 years ago

i don't think this is necessary not to mention i don't think we should trust a computer system to identify a human threat. just watch this system replace a few airport staff members. bad idea i think.

jessica Murphy 13 years ago

eagle eye comes to mind

Huh 13 years ago

why can't they just profile people against their facebook accounts? seems like a waste of taxpayer money.

Neighborhood Watche Advocate 13 years ago

this is a bad idea. electronic surveilence can be turned into evidence.-- evidence that can be fabricated. all you need is admin access. besides, something that monitors breathing should probably be regulated by the fda. what we need right now is more neighborhood watches, neighborhood patrols. having a system like this spells trouble because it does not provide an incentive to use due process. blindly collecting people's private information, even in public places doesn't constitute a crime has been committed. i have a neighbor who works for the fbi on "special projects" and he didn't even know that another neighbor was in the hospital, with a stroke, for 2 months... probably because he was sitting in front of a computer all day. pretty crappy neighbor, and if we had a neighbor who worked with dhs, we'd shun them too. but neighborhood watches solve many problems with privacy, because it seems that with this system there are no privacy controls either. who knows if this information and data will eventually be sold to third parties also, because under the freedom of information act, it could be used in manners it was not originally intended, and that's scary.

d64 13 years ago

i'm probably guilty of every thought crime imaginable, yet remain stubbornly peaceful. could this system tell if my artwork or writing is likely to cause violent reactions? could they arrest me for that?

tony 13 years ago

sounds like minority report :-)

concerned 13 years ago

another way for everyone to strike out usa as a future destination- tourist, business, school or plain scientific study. i myself will and wont. anything predicting a person's behavior, probabilities recorded in a massive database will always give false positive results no matter how extensive the application is. this application is malicious and unscientific. who are you? god, evil or just plain ass ?

Homeland Security Testing “Pre-Crime” Detection Technology

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