Most of the time, the criminal investigation process is complicated. Missing out even a tiny detail can lead to the wrong assumption, and officers might not be able to determine the cause of action and the real criminal. We have seen a lot of genius detectives in several movies but in reality, with our limited ability, we are unable to investigate the case with such maximum wit and thoroughness all the time. Nonetheless, with AI as our assistant, what was challenging became possible. In this article, I would like to walk you through the world of AI and criminal investigation to explore the roles of AI in criminal investigation, crime detection, and crime prevention to see how our modern technologies have made AI one of the most talented detectives in the world.
AI has been involved a lot in modern forensic investigation. The research from the University of Leon, Spain, trained neural networks to detect the physical evidence in crime scenes using thousands of photos of crime scenes. The model learned patterns of trace and evidence such as footprints, bullets, weapons. Besides, the model is able to detect and identify the pattern of the same criminal from different cases.
Droplets and substances in crime scenes are another reliable evidence, but the forensic investigation process takes too long. There is also the issue of discriminating whether the droplets are from the suspect or from the police entering the scene. If we deploy AI in this process with the help from the medical professions to build a medical AI model that processes properly, it leads to a time-saving, accurate, and transparent investigation.
During the investigation process, identifying the suspect from the crowd in public areas can be time and cost-wasting. Facial recognition technology can make it easier to reduce costs and increase accuracy in identifying the suspect in public. It even adds credibility to the evidence in court, since it used to be difficult to prove this kind of evidence because of the likelihood of human errors. A technology company in the United States has declared to create 100 billion face indexes for crime prevention. The company also said that it planned to develop a technology that can recognize people from their walking gestures and long-distance fingerprint scanners. However, privacy issues still needed to be addressed here.
For crime detection and prevention, AI is also the perfect answer. For instance, utilizing AI and sensors to detect gunfire so that police can rush to the scene even before the notice. There is a robot that can detect bombs by scanning for bomb-making materials such as nitroglycerin, aluminum powder, and tetranitrate.
Furthermore, AI can help prevent crime in advance, for example, tracking digital footprints, detecting messages that convey the intention of committing a crime, and analyzing profiles to detect people that are prone to committing crimes. AI can also analyze and find the connection between patterns, time, and places to predict the future crime scene to inform the officers in time. Predicting the areas that are at high risk of crime occurrence and improve the environment and increase security.
Technologies are invented to create a better, safer, and more convenient world for us, so does AI. I expect to see more of the adaptation of technologies' potential with greater accessibility and efficiency that technology and innovation are able to provide in investigation and justice.