Thread

500k facial scans at UK stations yield no arrests, 1 false positive

518 points · 305 comments · ilamont

benbristow · 1790684193 · focus · HN ↗
I've had an idea in the back of my head but I'm no businessman so have this one for free.
Build an AI model, train it from the catalogues of JD Sports and Sports Direct (and other brands like Stone Island etc.) and how to detect balaclavas, illegal electric bikes and e-scooters. Have it link to cameras and do a percentage chance using machine learning on chance of crime. Also increase the percentage if a 'wheely' is done (riding only on back wheel).
Would minority report the majority of crime in this country in one fell swoop.
Could call it ScroteScanner.
Some would call it discrimination but the majority of ASB I see around my area are people dressed/using those exact things.
If they start to catch-on (unlikely) then worse case we have a fancier looking society with gangsters in suits again.
1. Waterluvian · 1790684826 · focus · HN ↗
  They should just round up and imprison all the people who walk in my neighbourhood.
  Some would call it discrimination but the majority of people who commit crimes in my area are people who can walk. I rarely see the wheelchair crowd pulling off B&Es.
  Oh, or people who wear clothes. Criminals seem to like wearing clothes. Point proven: you never see nudists shoplifting Old Navy.
  1. benbristow · 1790685059 · focus · HN ↗
    People on illegal escooters or illegal electric bikes are already committing crimes, there's rarely a decent reason to be wearing a balaclava in the city.
    As I said, machine learning to take all these pointers into perspective.
    Waterluvian · 1790685890 · focus · HN ↗
    I think what makes this resemble a moronic idea is it’s a thin veneer of an invention based on your personal stereotyped perspective.
    The real challenge, if you wanted to work on the meat of the issue, is that we need to reduce crime without catching the innocent in the net, without having a chilling effect on legal behaviour and people’s rights, and without normalizing the mindset that we should just precrime people.
    One of the core points of Minority Report is in the film’s title: that even if technology becomes 99.99% accurate, we are still damned by the destruction of due process and the presumption of innocence.
    I think ideas like yours belong in the incinerator.
    pjc50 · 1790690922 · focus · HN ↗
    The unlicensed ebike, while not a serious problem, is a really annoying one in certain places, and everybody suspects that it's not a wave of people doing it but in fact a fairly small number of people doing antisocial things over and over again. Who are relying on being untraceable and on a versatile getaway vehicle.
    <a href="https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/11/thirteen-e-bikes-seized-during-police-operation-in-fountainbridge/?print=print" rel="nofollow">https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/11/thirteen-e-bikes-...
    Note that "illegal motorbike with no plates" is an offense that you can detect just by looking at it. There's no "pre" in the crime. The problem is either stopping them or tracing them.
    gadders · 1790693062 · focus · HN ↗
    ..And the broken windows theory of prosecuting minor crime to deter major crime worked pretty well in Guiliani New York.

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