Minority Report becomes real for Americans as police employ software that predicts crimes

Thanks to an integration of computer software packages combined with strategies intended to reduce crime, American police departments are entering a new era of policing. Officers on the street will have access to real-time information they hope will allow them not simply to react to crime, but to predict where and when it is most likely to occur and use their presence as a deterrent and catch criminals in the act. Many departments are already using ATAC, which stands for Automated Tactical Analysis of Crime. The software, developed by Bair Analytics, uses statistical analysis to generate up-to-date information about crime trends and hotspots. With an upgrade called ATAC RAIDS (Regional Analysis and Information Data Sharing), officers will have more information at their fingertips than ever before. "With ATAC RAIDS, it takes in the geographical component," crime analyst Kristen Kowalsky. "It maps it, it gives you a hotspot based on time of day, day of week, the frequency with which those crimes occur in a certain area. It takes all those factors into account and predict where it will happen in the future."