police behavior

Predictive Policing: The Future in Solving Crimes or the Arrival of Minority Report

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

By Michael Hugginsminority-report-11-3.jpg

The film Minority Report tells the story of a future society that uses technology to predict who will commit crimes. When the crime starts to occur, the Pre-Crime police department uses those predications to capture the individual before they commit the offense. Specifically, the Pre-Crime police department uses knowledge acquired from three pre-cognitive beings to predict the time and the place of the crimes. This 2002 film continues to spark intellectual and ethical curiosity in the minds of many science-fiction fans. But Minority Report is just that: science-fiction. Or is it?

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Don’t “Shoot!”: Recording Police Behavior Doesn’t Qualify for First Amendment Protections (At Least in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania)

/ Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts / Leave a comment

cldcBy Samuel Daheim

Our constitutional right to the freedom of expression under the First Amendment reaches a broad spectrum of wide-ranging activities. From flag burning to expenditures on campaigns for elected governmental office, the First Amendment protections of expression reach the lives of all U.S. citizens. However, on February 19th of this year, the federal district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that First Amendment protections of expression do not cover observing and recording police activity in a public forum where such observations and recordings are not accompanied by criticism or challenge to police conduct. Continue reading →