Murder and AI

Todays artificial intelligence (AI) technology does offer criminal investigators greater insight into how to decrease serial killings and murders. First off, AI can be used to identify patterns in killings and to scan and process data more quickly than any human investigator can do (Garza & Martinez, 2019). So long as the algorithms are programmed to look for potential clues or patterns, AI can be of great utility in preventing crimes and reducing the spate of killings historically associated with serial killers. Secondly, data scientists can and machine learning can help decision makers know where to focus resources so as to catch a killer, as Brown (2017) points out. AI can help police sort through video of crimes, analyze a crime scene, compare crime scenes, and predict future crime spots (Sabnis & Khurana, 2018). Had AI technology been around at the time of Ted Bundy or the Atlanta Child Murders probably would not have happened for as many years as they did occur.

As Brown (2017) explains, data analytics is really at the heart of what policing is really all about when it comes to crime prevention. The data is what shows patterns, and it is what allows for predictions to be made about where to concentrate police forces. The data shows that certain crimes are more likely to occur in certain conditions, i.e., at night, in particular neighborhoods, and so on. If police are looking for a suspect or are looking to stop a type of crime, like serial killing, they can enter the data they have into an AI program and see what predictions can be made, what trends appear, and what patterns become obvious. Data analysts already do this type of work, but machine learning and AI tools can help analysts do it even more efficiently. Humans work slow, but machinesonce programmedcan work very fast. And when time is of the essence, as it always in a murder case, the more machines one has working on a casesuch as the Bundy case...…highlight what is not evident to human intelligence. Of course, for AI to work effectively it has to be programmed effectively, which means there is always going to be a human intelligence behind AIbut it is no different from the kind of human intelligence required to build a car: the human builds the car, but once it is built the human is not responsible for transporting the passenger; the car does the work. The same is true of AI: the human must put it together; but once it is put together, the AI technology does the work.

In conclusion, AI can be a useful tool in stopping or preventing murders and serial killings because every criminal of that sort leaves a trail, leaves behind a patter, leaves clues that AI can analyze to make predictions about who the killer might be, what the motive might be, where the next crime might occur, and how it might happen. Police can use this intelligence to focus resources in such a way as to maximize policing impact.…