The dangers of a police force enchanted with tech do not need spelling out―enough dystopian sci fi thrillers exist already. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Fred Allen, senior associate at Kingsley Napley, addresses the increasing reliance on tech by law enforcement agencies in England and Wales.
Errors have already been uncovered. The Metropolitan Police’s ‘Gangs Matrix’ database, for example, was recently found to include about one thousand people who posed little or no risk, nearly all of whom were young, black men. Following a review ordered by the London Mayor, the names were removed.
Allen writes: ‘Efforts to increase awareness and implement cultural change must begin now. Without such change it is increasingly likely that the courts will have to snap the criminal justice system out of its “digital enchantment” through decisions in criminal trials and judicial review, with potentially expensive and embarrassing consequences for the organisations involved.’
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