Digitalising discrimination and criminalisation

1 January-30 June 2025

This work will expose and challenge the criminalisation and discrimination caused by data-based crime ‘prediction’ and profiling systems employed by policing and criminal justice authorities in Europe. It will provide evidence of and information on the actual and potential harms posed by these systems to over-policed and marginalised populations and the wider public. In doing so it will provide a basis for mobilisation by affected and interested groups to seek policy changes that defend and extend civil liberties and human rights, including in the context of work on the implementation of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act.

Through this project, we will support the publication of reports on the ‘state of play’ with regard to police and criminal justice use of AI and other advanced technical systems in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain, as well as producing original research on the UK.

Outputs

National research

• Belgium (Liga voor Menschenrechten, Ligue des Droits Humans)
  • Automated Discrimination: ‘Predictive’ Policing and Data-Profiling in Belgium
  • Petit Pays, Big Data : Automatisation des discriminations et police ‘prédictive’ en Belgique
• France (La Quadrature du Net)
  • Predictive Policing in France: Against opacity and discrimination, the need for a ban
• Germany (AlgorithmWatch)
  • Algorithmic Policing: When Predicting Means Presuming Guilty
  • Automating Injustice: “Predictive” policing in Germany
• Spain (AlgoRace)
  • Injustice by algorithm: predictive policing and profiling systems in the police and judicial field in Spain
  • Algoritmos y desigualdad: sistemas policiales predictivos y de perfilamiento en el ámbito policial y judicial en España
• UK
  • Ministry of Justice secretly developing ‘murder prediction’ system
  • UK: Over 1,300 people profiled daily by Ministry of Justice AI system to ‘predict’ re-offending risk

Synthesis of national reports

• Report page
• English: New Technology, Old Injustice: Data-driven discrimination and profiling in police and prisons in Europe (pdf)
• Vlaams: Nieuwe Technologie, Oude Onrechtvaardigheid: Op data gebaseerde discriminatie en criminalisering bij de politie en in gevangenissen in Europa (pdf)
• Français: pending
• Español: pending
• Press release: Police racism and criminalisation across Europe increasingly fuelled by digital ‘prediction’ and profiling systems