Geospatial Technology in the Movies

Robocop (2014)

2017 The B-Movie Film Vault

OmniCorp, a multi-national robotics company, profits overseas by making robots to

maintain peace. For years, the United States have been prohibited from using
robotics because they do not want machines to make the decision to kill people
because they do not have feelings. Thus the company is losing out on billions of
dollars. Police officer Alex Murphy comes into the picture who is critically injured in
the line of duty, and OmniCorp takes advantage of this opportunity to save Alex's
life and turn him into a half-robot, half-man crime fighter to their advantage.
OmniCorp has not considered the fact that there is still a real-life human being
within all this robotic technology. As he returns to his job in law enforcement, Alex
Murphy begins to face many human issues and tries to fight the programming that
is installed in his brain that OmniCorp uses to control him.

This movie had many of the GIS mapping technologies that Esri (from
http://www.esri.com/industries/ law-enforcement) uses and that we have been
learning about in our Remote Sensing class. The opening scene starts off with
OmniCorp robotic soldiers in a foreign country utilizing their technology to maintain
peace. The military used geospatial predictive analysis to determine whether the
people were dangerous and to scan them to see if there were weapons present or
the person was considered a threat. It also could determine whether they were an
"asset" and not to be harmed.

In many scenes in the movie, Officer Murphy was engaging in simulations and real-
life situations where the darkness required the use of thermal imaging in order to
find the enemy robots and criminal perpetrators. This technology has been used in
many modern-day military operations today requiring extreme accuracy in the
cover of darkness. In today's military, imaging is used in operations when gathering
intelligence in the air, land, and sea. Below are some example images of thermal
imaging.
 2016, Kintronics.com 2017 Digital Design & Imaging Service, Inc. | AirPhotosLive 2017
Sofradir EC, Inc.

Officer Murphy was also equipped with software in his brain to quickly visualize and
analyze data. He used this technology to plan and use in tactical operations when
he first rejoined the force in order to figure out where several wanted criminals
would likely be located using GIS technology. This required spatial analysis to map
out current crime data and to recognize criminal patterns and to predict where the
criminals were likely to be. Today's law enforcement agencies has been utilizing this
technology to do exactly what the character did in the movie, but it is not attached
to their brain, obviously.

19952016 Esri.

The current technology to "...extract data from computer-aided dispatch (CAD),

record management systems (RMS), and all the other police systems and sensors..."
(http://www.esri.com/industries/law-enforcement/crime-analysis) is currently being
used in GIS mapping software was also contained in the movie. Murphy used GIS
mapping while searching criminal files and tracking criminals. This software
provides officers with the necessary tools to track down persons who committed
crimes and bring them to justice.

ProEMSCambridge

There is so much information on how GIS technology is being used to help create a
safer world that it
cannot be covered in the scope of this short essay. It was fascinating to see how the
movie portray this futuristic technology but in reality it is currently being used to
help officers do their jobs more efficiently. The one downside is that with this
technology to capture bad guys also means that our privacy is less private. There is
a sacrifice we must pay in order to get criminals off the streets. I can only imagine
what the future holds for us and look forward to the day when fear of harm is not as
prevalent as it is today.

REFERENCES

10Dallas GIS Police Analyst Uses Geospatial Skills to fight Crime. (2014, February
24). Retrieved March 13, 2017,from http://www.policemag.com/channel/careers-
training/news/2014/02/24/dallas-gis-police-analyst-uses-geospatial-skills-to-fight-
crime.aspx

Howard, C. E. (2007, January 1). Thermal-imaging technology turns night into day
for U.S. warfighters. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from
http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/print/volume-18/issue-1/electro-optics-
supplement/features/thermal-imaging-technology-turns-night-into-day-for-us-
warfighters.html

Law Enforcement. (n.d.) Retrieved March 13, 2017, from

http://www.esri.com/industries/law-enforcement

Mesnik, B. (2016, June 21). Retrieved March 13, 2017, from

https://kintronics.com/detection-recognition-and-identification-using-thermal-
imaging-vs-optical-ip-camera/

Office for Victims of Crime. (2003, February). Crime Mapping (continued) - How GIS
Is Used in Law Enforcement. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from
https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/reports/geoinfosys2003/cm3b.html

Ungerleider, N. (2012, July 30). Google Maps Help Predict Meth Labs Before They
Open | Fast Company | The Future Of Business. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from
https://www.fastcompany.com/1814225/law-enforcements-secret-weapon-google-
maps?partner=gnews