In 2002, the film Minority Report came out. Audiences revelled in the unique plot, which depicted a dystopian society wherein police officers working in a specific division known as “PreCrime” stop perpetrators before any offense is committed. Now, over 20 years later, the UK government is exploring a rather radical programme of its own.

According to The Guardian, a “murder prediction” scheme is in the works, with hopes that officials can use personal data of individuals known to the authorities in order to try and identify certain members of the public who are most likely to become killers. The scheme is a collaboration between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Home Office, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the Metropolitan Police in London.

This new method of ‘predicting’ who is ‘likely to commit a crime’ will no doubt focus on #prison leavers and people on #probation as their data is collected and shared. We’re entering an era of arresting people before they’ve committed a crime. https://t.co/W5IJbX7WlU

— LifeAfterPrison (@MemesKind) April 9, 2025

The potentially controversial programme, which was originally called the “homicide prediction project,” will allow researchers to use algorithms to analyse the information of thousands of people, including victims of crime. It has now been renamed “sharing data to improve risk assessment.”

While officials seem hopeful that this could be a revolutionary step forward in curbing crime levels, many netizens online have expressed concerns—particularly in regard to the ways in which these algorithms could falsely identify and penalise completely innocent members of society.

Uk creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill?

We need actual crimes DEALT with not ‘potential future crimes’

We aren’t attending burglaries attacks or shoplifting: this has potential for extreme abuse: social credit system?https://t.co/wXCLAHfwRY pic.twitter.com/J6AXoHnT4m

— Alan D Miller (@alanvibe) April 9, 2025

Isn’t this the plot of Minority Report?
Or is it thoughtcrime???https://t.co/LsRBB0ql08

— Sam Disabled Man On Benefits (@CounsellingSam) April 8, 2025

“The Ministry of Justice’s attempt to build this murder prediction system is the latest chilling and dystopian example of the government’s intent to develop so-called crime ‘prediction’ systems. Time and again, research shows that algorithmic systems for ‘predicting’ crime are…

— GET A GRIP (@docrussjackson) April 9, 2025

Algorithms are created by people, and if this scheme is being implemented by organisations and institutions that have been proven to be systemically racist, then it’s safe to say that there should be legitimate fears over the potential discriminatory nature of this programme.

I thought the film Minority Report was a warning, not an instruction manual.

The Ministry of Justice seems to think differently.

Algorithms attempting to predict whether someone will become a murderer will likely lead to bias and discrimination.https://t.co/5fEwcA8rvT

— David Davis MP (@DavidDavisMP) April 9, 2025

It was the pressure group Statewatch that first identified the homicide prediction project. According to the group, “the so-called predictive tool” uses personal data from between 100,000 and 500,000 people.

“The MoJ says in the documents that the project is intended to ‘[e]xplore the power of MOJ datasets in relation to assessment of homicide risk.’ The MoJ Data Science team then ‘develops models’ seeking ‘the powerful predictors in the data for homicide risk.’ The data used by the MoJ to develop the tool includes information on hundreds of thousands of suspects, victims, witnesses, missing people, and people for whom there are safeguarding concerns.”

The data also includes information on people in vulnerable situations. For example, data on people’s mental health, addiction, self-harm, suicide, vulnerability, and disability.

The project was initially commissioned by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was in power. 

In response to recent speculation, a spokesperson from the MoJ stated: “This project is being conducted for research purposes only. It has been designed using existing data held by HM Prison and Probation Service and police forces on convicted offenders to help us better understand the risk of people on probation going on to commit serious violence. A report will be published in due course.”

There are so many reports available online that question the effectiveness of predictive policing. So, irrespective of whether or not this project is being used solely for research purposes, its mere existence is not only troubling but objectively disconcerting.