'Terrorist-sniffing' profiling prediction app trialled by California police

Are you black? Or have a Muslim-sounding name? Or use Facebook a lot? If so, you might be well-advised to steer clear of police in Fresno for a short while.

The city's police department is reportedly using software named "Beware" to detect a suspect's potential "threat level".

The app is based off a wealth of personal information about US citizens, including data on previous arrests and property records, including whether they own a gun.

Threat levels are divided according to three colour-coded scores including a bright red warning, and are used by the police in the Californian city of 520,000 to determine whether an individual likely poses any danger.

"This is something that's been building since September 11," said Jennifer Lynch, an official at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"First funding went to the military to develop this technology, and now it has come back to domestic law enforcement," Lynch added.

But reports that the programme's established link between people's ethnicities and social backgrounds to the "likelihood of committing a crime" raises worries over racial profiling.

Those active on social media are also scrutinised to determine their level of threat.

"[The software] could assign an elevated threat level based on tweets or Facebook posts that offer constitutionally protected speech that criticises police officers or police unions," the report said.

Whenever these surveillance technologies are on the table, there needs to be a meaningful debate

Police officials believe that such tools allow them to "do more with less".

"Our officers are expected to know the unknown and see the unseen," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. "They are making split-second decisions based on limited facts. The more you can provide in terms of intelligence and video, the more safely you can respond to calls."

However, critics say the software should have been reviewed before it was put into use.

"We think that whenever these surveillance technologies are on the table, there needs to be a meaningful debate," said Matt Cagle, an attorney for the ACLU of Northern California, "There need to be safeguards and oversight."

Muslim groups and civil liberties organisations have expressed increasing concern over the targeting of Muslims in the US following the September 11 attacks fifteen years ago.

Civil rights organisations have similarly expressed concern at the "racial profiling" techniques of US police, which they say unfairly targets people from ethnic minority groups.