Rethinking policing.
What would it take to have a society that does not need policing? A group of people who mind their own business, and do not lie, steal or hit each other. That has clearly not happened, and as power structures in any group of humans creates haves and have-nots, eventual transgressions of some kind are inevitable. In any society, with any form of government, the Orwellian Animal Farm is inevitable. To remind, the moral of that story was that sooner or later, in any a society, a group emerges that is more equal than others.
Incidentally crime is lowest in places where everyone is an outsider and everyone has a strong dis-incentive against breaking the law in terms of assured jobs, food on the table, etc. Prime examples are cities like Dubai, Singapore, etc.
For a software system that helps the police to do their job, making the social inequalities visible is probably more important than the effect in terms of burglaries, car thefts, and more violent crimes.
Community policing is based on such a thought process, but instead of tracking dissent and causes thereof, it has chosen to focus on crime statistics. The part it may have got right is ensuring policeman on the street.
Modern surveillance systems such as CCTV and tracking devices on the other hand suggest to people that they are living in a police state. How does one get to a stage where people and police are simply roles that people have.
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