Laplace’s Officer: The Future of Predictive Policing

• In Event: Police Strategies, Issues, and Perspectives, Past and Present.

Abstract

Policing and the justice system have long relied on static methods of measurement and execution. Although classical theories have provided researchers, administrators, and legislators with insights into the causes of crime, crime itself has evolved beyond these traditional methods. This paper examines promising new research and innovative thinking focusing on the future of crime prevention. Scholars who integrate long-standing traditions from quantum holography and statistical mechanics are breathing new life into the field. Alongside a growing number of continuously updated open data sources—which are expected to be increasingly integrated into policing, these approaches signal a new era of predictive policing strategies. Specifically, through the use and continuous improvement of stochastic processes to calculate the probability of crime displacement and diffusion, proactive policing is poised for greater success. Coupled with recent advances in quantum computing and artificial intelligence, data integration across agencies will become more refined, allowing for extreme precision in predicting criminal activity in both the real world and the cyber realm. Indeterminacy has long plagued policing, but with these experimental methods, quantum holographic criminology and predictive policing are set to shape the future.

Author

• Jordan Isaac Cline, University of Nebraska Omaha