Home Secretary Mahmood proposes Panopticon-style AI state surveillance

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to announce major police reforms in an upcoming white paper, focusing on the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat crime. Central to her vision is the use of technology to establish a modern equivalent of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon. Mahmood stated that her ultimate goal for the criminal justice system is to ensure the eyes of the state are on criminals at all times, mirroring Bentham’s 18th-century prison design, in which inmates were under constant, unseen surveillance.

Mahmood argues that by harnessing AI, the state can get ahead of offenders. She maintains that individuals who commit crimes "sacrifice the right to the kind of liberty the rest of us enjoy," justifying the expansion of tools like live facial recognition and GPS tagging to create virtual prisons within the community.

Supporting this strategy, Sir Andy Marsh of the College of Policing highlighted predictive analytics as a key pillar for targeting the 1,000 most dangerous predatory men in England and Wales. The government is investing £4 million in an interactive AI-driven map to predict crime hotspots, such as areas prone to knife offences, by 2030. 

While acknowledging that AI must be regulated to ensure accuracy following recent high-profile errors in police data searches, Mahmood insists that high-tech surveillance is essential for proactive intervention. The reforms aim to shift the burden of fear from victims to criminals by ensuring that police can identify and intercept threats before they cause further harm.

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