Watch Your Step: The Potential Use of Smart Concrete in Law Enforcement

By Kathryn Threatt

In his podcast, The Justice Tech Download, Jason Tashea envisions a new and smart use for concrete: to collect data to identify perpetrators via gait analysis.[1]

Imagine. As you walk along your city’s sidewalks the sensors within its concrete track your steps and your gait. You pause just before someone bumps into you. That someone just rushed out of a convenience store. You notice a few characteristics about them as they pass by: hair color, height in comparison to your own, shade of clothing, and race/ethnicity. Your attention then turns to the convenience store owner who runs out of the store screaming, “Thief!” The alleged thief then sprints down the street and disappears before anyone stops them. The police take your statement and gather data from this smart sidewalk when they arrive.

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