I've had an idea in the back of my head but I'm no businessman so have this one for free.

Build an AI model, train it from the catalogues of JD Sports and Sports Direct (and other brands like Stone Island etc.) and how to detect balaclavas, illegal electric bikes and e-scooters. Have it link to cameras and do a percentage chance using machine learning on chance of crime. Also increase the percentage if a 'wheely' is done (riding only on back wheel).

Would minority report the majority of crime in this country in one fell swoop.

Could call it ScroteScanner.

Some would call it discrimination but the majority of ASB I see around my area are people dressed/using those exact things.

If they start to catch-on (unlikely) then worse case we have a fancier looking society with gangsters in suits again.

They should just round up and imprison all the people who walk in my neighbourhood.

Some would call it discrimination but the majority of people who commit crimes in my area are people who can walk. I rarely see the wheelchair crowd pulling off B&Es.

Oh, or people who wear clothes. Criminals seem to like wearing clothes. Point proven: you never see nudists shoplifting Old Navy.

I would love to see a similar model trained on the Forbes 30 under 30 to catch all the young financial creatives wearing Patagonia gilets.

It would probably pay for itself.

Finding these people is not the hard part, they're walking around everywhere. The police either don't care or aren't allowed to enforce the law.

Technically you are proposing targeting poor people with extra steps. charming.

Having lived in shitty neighborhood all my life (not in the UK tho'), I find this pretty laughable. First off, you would be surprised at how petty criminal caught on police tactic fairly quickly and find way around them. But in general, you will just get petty criminal. Sure they are a nuisance, but more a symptom than a cause. And let's say we do just that. You arrest thousand upon thousand of balaclava-wearing, e-scooter driving dudes. What do you do then ? Most of them will have to be released because, well, they didn't do anything. You might catch some of them with minor charges like drug possession or possession of a knife or something. You successfully wasted thousands of police and justice man-hours for a few petty charges which won't change anything. “Solving” crime is a hard problem, and one with 0 simple solutions and many, many things we have to work on as a society. Your idea is a net negative in prertty much all aspect.

We already have plenty of gangsters in suits. They travel in taxis and chauffeured cars, not on e-scooters.

Its like Shazam for Scrotes

They could just make sentencing tougher and keep criminals in prison.

The strongest predictor (by far) for committing a crime is having a prior criminal record.

> foul swoop

It's "fell swoop".

Hook this up into the facial recognition tech they're in no doubt are already using, and then you could also collect data from people's social profiles, ensure they vote for the right parties and generally don't get into trouble like opposing mainstream political ideas and such things.

I've spent a whole of 15 seconds thinking about this and I don't foresee a single drawback here, lets just try it and see if we can prevent future crimes 100%, because then the future will have been saved.

Set up some automated scanners for cyclists jumping red lights in the City as well.

The degree to which the British underclasses adopted a dress-code in the late '80s (quite conveniently, for the authorities), is a social phenomenon that should be studied. They openly self-discriminate, willingly reducing opportunities and outcomes. Was it just evolutionary adaptation (tracksuits make it easier to run in dangerous situations), or was it pursuit of a tribal sense of belonging?