Google Maps has already been used to pinpoint crime in Chicago by address, but can technology go beyond apartment hunting to actually predicting crime? Our Take: not yet, unless you think it’s rocket science to notice certain neighborhoods have more crime and therefore are more likely to have have more crime in the future.

“Mike Elgan has an amusing Minority Report-style post suggesting that a police computer predicted a mugging. The details are a little less exciting however. It wasn’t necessarily the computer that did anything. It looks like a police officer using the computer, suggested that police pay extra attention to a certain area over a certain time frame, as it seemed likely there would be a mugging - but it’s not clear what went into that recommendation.”

More Minority Report