SMART LAW ENFORCEMENT 2020Crime Solving Rate 50%, Civil Rights 100%. Open Letter to all democratic Police & Justice Leaders

In 2020, smart, semi automatic law enforcement ensures that citizens can protect themselves better. Only offenders of the law and criminals, not decent citizens, are confronted, bothered and checked. Smart law enforcement is preventive law enforcement. Non-fraudulent persons can remain anonymous; fraudulent persons and people violating the rules, are exposed in real-time. An intelligent device does not function anymore after it is stolen, so why bother to steal? No more embarrassing pictures on internet put there by angry ex-partners; without the built in permission the screen automatically goes black. From "punishment and fines afterwards" we move towards "preventing rules from being broken".

The mobile telephone will be the ultimate safety instrument. In 2020 it will be used as environmental check, passport and lie detector. It will enable citizens to protect themselves better. Personal camera's will be used for personal safety. We will have "victim technology for victim empowerment". Privacy will no longer function as unlawful hiding place for evil, but as rightful hiding place for decent citizens. In 2020, citizens will have gained back control over their (virtual) life. Key words are: self control, self protection, self defense, self safety.

Thanks to smart law enforcement, the world will be a much safer place in 2020, and citizens will have more power. We will have a crime solving percentage of 50% (and not 20% as it is now), without any loss of civil rights. At last, crime does not pay anymore... Smart enforcement means less criminal justice and more civil law, which is more effective. It also means that a sizeable portion of police work disappears. Police officers shall have more effective time on the streets for their monopoly: using physical violence. They will spend considerable less time at their desk. Of course, fines as an income source for government will have disappeared. That barrier prevented the innovation. Smart innovation by the police and justice departments means: integrating smart enforcement in every day safety processes. Getting rid of perverse institutional incentives, like police fines as a source of government income. And, most important, restoring the authority of the police officers on the streets. Without that, all technology is useless.

In 2020, law enforcement will be real-time and more strict than ever. Intelligence will be embedded in all physical things that surround us. Buildings, doors and elevators will allow or deny access according to the embedded government rules. Digital identities and checks will be integrated into every financial and government transaction we make. It will increasingly enable us to maintain our safety ourselves as well. Point your mobile to the taxi driver and check if he / she has a valid, up-to-date taxi driver's license. Or drives without insurance. Or has tampered with the taxi meter. Point your mobile to that wonderful blue lake and check if it is safe to swim. Point your mobile to that factory chimney (if factories still exist :-) and see if its radiation levels are within healthy range. Naturally you do not have to check the elevator; it will not work if the embedded government license has expired. Checked trust, smart law enforcement.

Smart government

In 2020, we will no longer be confronted with a government asking silly questions such as Who are you? What is your income? Do you have a ticket? The answers to these questions are already known. In this truly paperless world with selfservice dashboards it is difficult to lie about our income, our whereabouts, our possessions.

In 2020 the world will be transparent. Our professional activities and our performances shall be available in real-time for everyone. The competition shall increase as our ranking on the Top 5 or Flop 5 will be visual in real-time. However, this does not mean that all of our privacy is compromised. We will have a better grip on our personal data and what we permit others to do with this data. The introduction of selfservice dashboards means that citizens and clients control themselves with whom they wish to communicate and what conditions are applicable. Spam free, ad free! We determine ourselves who can do what with our data. We will no longer be included in 800 databases and be oblivious about it! In 2020 we will have less and more privacy: our privacy regarding personal communication will increase significantly; however, our visual and geographical privacy on the streets will decrease. Privacy will no longer act as shelter for evil; it will act as the sound shelter for decent citizens. If you do decent things, you can stay anonymous wherever you like. Only if you undertake criminal actions or violate the rule, your anonymity and privacy will be taken away in realtime.

In 2020 there will be no evident difference between physical and virtual. Access to a database and to a building will be the same. Multiple biometric security and encryption will be the standard. Our sweat, voice, skin, eyes and ears will be our safe guard and the key to any kind of access.

The museum piece (the computer!) will no longer be the sole entrance to the virtual world. Having information on one single device and access to that one single device is no longer applicable. It is about access to information, somewhere in the network, not connected to the device used. The world will be one single, large hard disk, searchable on standard characteristics. In 2020 there will be a global, democratic Police/Justice-Google of records of convictions, based on standardised information.

Government will become more and more invisible and more effective. It will no longer produce paper rules and regulations, no, it will produce rules in the form of knowledge systems and software. The government will download licenses and regulation in the form of software and will send this directly to the doors and buildings, in databases and company systems. The elevator of which the license has expired, will no longer function. The government will upload generated and combined statistics, without the need to deprive the company involved of its human time. Payment of taxes will be dynamic and continuous. Payment of VAT due will be effected on the moment of paying the consumer goods by means of electronic payment methods, and will directly be registered in the accounting systems of the company involved and in the governmental system as well. The cash receipt will be in touch with life.

We have abolished our national borders, but boundaries remain to be required. We may well return to the medieval city: there it was determined who could enter and who could not. The present video-traffic control and payment systems for reducing traffic-jams, such as used in London, will be used for this purpose. Moreover, we will be approaching a continuous virtual administrative "border control" at each and every contact citizens wish to establish with the government or a company: is this person authorised, yes or no? Is this the real voice of the client? Does he lie? This means less possibilities for illegal residence, less possibilities for undeclared work and less fraud with regard to social security.

From punishment after the deed has been done, to preventive law enforcement

Should someone drive away after causing an accident, the vehicle will automatically reveal its identity to the victim and the police. If you behave, you can drive on anonymously for ever. In fact, each and everyone of us can remain anonymous - as long as we behave civilised. The system will only reveal our identity in real-time if fraud or misuse is involved. In short, the citizen will be her own police officer, and the police officer travels along, in the car and in the laptop.

We know where people and things are, at any time. We know the GPS-location of the trucks of the company, but of our children as well. We will thus loose less track of people and things. On the airport, people and luggage will be linked virtually. When a disaster is at hand, all people in the vicinity of the disaster will be warned by mobile telephone.

Self control, self protection, self safety. The citizen as police officer, the mobile telephone as safety instrument

A smart world with sensors, tracking & tracing ensures warnings in real-time. Think of a what is referred to as a sensor column, located in the chimney of a factory: people living in the neighbourhood are warned if certain environmental levels are exceeded. Think of the GPS-ankle tag, used for (sentenced) criminals with a court injunction, which sends a signal to the potential victim and the nearest police officer, should the criminal reach the vicinity of the victim. Illegal use of space is immediately reported by GPS as well, and this prevents fraudulent use of subsidies.

The integration of the biometric passport (a smartcard) - mandatory in the future in European Union! - in the mobile telephone, is a fabulous means to link identity, rights and duties and to check this in real-time. The mobile telephone will function as a lie detector for citizens. Click and check in real-time whether the taxi driver has a driving license, or whether the bar has a fire license. Regulations and licenses will be integrated in chips in cars and buildings, in doors and humans. Check the doctor, check the travel agency: less chances on fraud and swindling with counterfeit knowledge. The parking license, the application letter, the certification, the taxes, name and address details: all will be provided with a digital stamp "Approved/Reliable", and the citizen can check this in real-time. As soon as all information sources on the Internet and in the physical world have such a reliability tag, they can all be checked. The intelligent share automatically prevents that it will be sold to or by a certain person within a certain time frame. Intelligent money knows it may not be spent twice; prevents this from happening and immediately reveals the identity of a fraudulent person to the bank or the police.

If children chat, they will immediately know if they chat with a child or an adult, for each and everyone logs on with a guaranteed (partial) identity, such as gender or age. The "child mobile" enables parents to control the communication and payment terms of their youngsters; a nice method against child molesters and debts.

Smart checking, smart inspectors: no inconvenience for decent citizens

A smart weapon is a transparent weapon. It registers who shoots when, and naturally, it will only shoot if the marksman is (biometrically) authorised.

As soon as all containers in the harbour are provided with a chip including a reliability tag, they can all be checked in realtime. In 2020 inspection means inspecting the cargo by means of a mobile telephone (or something similar). The cargo, in which the chips is integrated, will report any problems automatically and on the spot. Inspection will only be applicable if something illegal occurs! Civilised sources will not be hindered, only criminal affairs will stand out.

Idem ditto, intelligent (body) searches can be performed by remote control: without the need for any physical touching of the body, police officers can scan a crowd of people ("non-physical body search") by using a mobile x-ray-type of device. They can scan on illegal or incorrect objects and on the lack of a valid admission ticket. By means of an identity scan or video scan, the match will be performed in real-time. Does the person have a police record? Does the person have an admission ticket? Is the person behaving suspicious or aggressive? The intelligent camera detects rising aggressive situations by listening and looking intelligently, and by asking the assistance of police officers before the situation explodes. The difference between intelligent video control in 2020 and the present dumb video control is enormous.

In 2020, we will be able to search not only by typing in keywords, but also or giving in a picture. Techniques to trace digital images back to the cameras that created them -- like tracing a bullet back to the gun that fired it -- can help in the prosecution of child pornographers.

On the other hand, the moment we have smart camera's, angry ex-partners will no longer be able to put embarrassing pictures on the internet or make public private emails without permission. The point is, if the built in permission is revoked, the screen goes black...

Smart law enforcement confronts criminals and does not bother law abiding citizens. At present, the train conductor or guard checks all people on the train and bus. Inconvenient and unnecessary. If the train ticket simply transmits its existence to the mobile telephone of the guard, the guard only needs to inspect those people who do not transmit anything ... Not all persons will be scanned, including the decent, only the suspicious ones.

Smart enforcement means less criminal justice and more civil law, which is more effective. Since physical borders do not work properly, and imprisonment is relatively short, we can use the virtual government and financial borders to grant or deny access to social security and legal, financial life. Revoking a credit card works much better.

No matter how much you signal or detect by means of technology, in the end it is all about taking action, meaning "having the nerve". If a police officer is afraid to interfere on the streets, if a judge sentences too little or too late, if sentences are not carried out properly, if citizen self defense is punished, then overall safety will not be served. We need police heroes. This will increase the limited authority and respect for the police -- which hinders the safety more than any technological system or the best laws. Regain that authority! The rights of the victim and the rights of the decent citizen need to be at the centre of our attention once again, not the rights of the criminal. The other way around the same applies: if the citizen is aggressive, the government is no longer held to pay social securities, supply transport or allow entrance.

In short, smart law enforcement means citizen friendly enforcement. Technology is key in achieving this safer society. Of course, lots of problems can and will arise. Hacked cars, digital infrastructure that is not open standard or too expensive, embedded intelligence that fails in case of an electricity failure. Smart innovation by the police and justice departments means: integrating smart enforcement in every day safety processes -- in small doses, in small steps, whenever & wherever it is possible. Getting rid of perverse institutional incentives, like police fines as a source of government income. And, most important, restoring the authority of the police officers on the streets. Without that, all technology is useless. All of this will take lots of years, but who cares? Safety heroes start innovating now!

Independent European Futurist and Guest Speaker Marcel Bullinga wrote this article after the futuring session he held with the Dutch Police Top 100, mayors and prosecutors at the end of 2005. Marcel has a passion for the future and innovation of police & justice. His motto is: "There is not one single future, there are many thousands. Choose the one you want!" Mail your reaction on this article to info@futurecheck.nl

The PDF containing all articles is called Futurecheck Knowledgeletter 2006 and can be downloaded for free.