Pre-Vent Systems

The subject is hooded, his face is obscured in shadow - so upon the failure of a visual biometric identification, two emitters fire infrared lasers, several thousand a second, targeting the figure. The sensors record the scattered photons and render a three dimensional image of a face. Biometric analysis then assigns the subject a numerical code derived from the features of this three dimensional model, including the curve of the chin and eye sockets, structures of rigid bone that rarely change. Failing to generate an ID match at 98% probability, a rapid burst of electromagnetic radiation is fired, the charged particles penetrating several layers matter, clothing, skin, and bone. He is Oceanic Citizen 20099493S, David D. Hudson. The Tracer Bot is alerted that another packet of information regarding its subject can be logged.

He is not affiliated with any Authority or Clan. He has a history of two arrests and one conviction for unauthorised distribution, but no history within the Han Authority. A Trace Bot was set on Mr Hudson as he crossed the border when a history marker in his profile raised a red flag; Mr Hudson’s profile indicated an association with a local small-time mover in synthetic pharma in the Han Authority, Kicker Budd, aka Buddy, who on the 12^th of that month, just a week prior to David’s arrival, had been found dead in a storage unit he had been residing in, a probable victim of murder.

The Tracer Bot works as a liaison between networks and Pre-Vent.  Given the huge amount of data to sort a Trace can be set to pick out only the information relating to its target and send that data to Pre-Vent Systems for analysis, which can then update the threat level in real time. Dave has been sitting in this bus shelter for 45 minutes. In that time three busses have stopped, and Dave has not boarded. Pre-Vent Systems determines this to be abnormal behaviour and sets this event a proportional priority among the thousands of other events occurring simultaneously throughout its monitored zones.  

A Protocol Score is a probability derived from a set of highly complex algorithms utilising biological, psychological, and sociological parameters. Dave was assigned a score the day his birth was registered with the Oceanic Trade Union. This scored was derived from circumstances to which he was born, for instance, his mother, affectionately called Skinny by her peers, was under the age of eighteen, and the Institute for Adolescent and Child Psychology have suggested that children born to teenage parents are more likely to have serious problems in later life, do poorly in school compared to other children, more likely to suffer poverty, and are more likely to be seriously affected by mental illness. This principle and many others like it form the parameters and algorithms employed by Pre-Vent to accurately profile a potential criminal. Some have argued that the system of profiling is in fact discrimination, and set up to target the most vulnerable in society, the poor, the minorities, and the mentally ill. Pre-Vent advocates have responded claiming their scaling system is based on peer reviewed, academic research, and though economic viability and mental health irrefutably have baring on an individual’s life, there are many other factors that Pre-Vent considers, and that the opposition is cherry picking variables to suit their agenda. Additionally, the system works, the crime rates have decreased 40% since the implementation of the system.

David’s score continued to compound as each life event set him more firmly on course for criminality. Public schools are underfunded and overcrowded, students do not receive the attention from teachers private school children receive and are therefore disadvantaged. Statistically they are less likely to pull themselves out of poverty in future life, and more likely to serve time in prison. It is common for them to feel like outsiders from society and more likely to seek acceptance in criminal gangs. Several social markers became active on Mr Hudson’s profile, his sporadic attendance to a public school; the schools geographic location in a low income, high crime area, and his peer group, whose situation corresponded closely with his own.

Advocates would say that David Hudson has not been singled out, that there are in fact thousands of young men in this exact same situation, and that the system is the perfect tool to help them, to protect them from themselves. Pre-Vent can be used as an intervention tool, to be used when it is clear that one of these victims of circumstance is about to step outside the boundaries of law, and help them return to an equilibrium. Numerous social welfare programs have been implemented targeting people specifically like David; their rating entitles them to see counselling, rehabilitation, and employment solutions.  

As part of Pre-Vents capacity to intervene it has contacted a local Enforcement Unit to intercept David, and provide services if required.