History Main / PrecrimeArrest

* While in the West, outright arrest is not allowed, there had been examples, such as Chicago, [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/precrime-film-documentary-minority-report-police-a8289576.html of the use of an algorithm to predict its inhabitants’ potential involvement with violent crime, which creates a Strategic Subject List - known colloquially as the “heat list” - a comprehensive list of who it considers to be the most dangerous people in the city]], and people are commonly warned due to this list. The reason why outright arrest is not allow is that modern Western legal systems have a heavy emphasis on "innocent until proven guilty" and "punishment after the crime". If the possibility--even if ''incredibly'' small--exists to ScrewDestiny, then the usage of this Trope in real life would probably be seen as unfair arrest or (in the most extreme examples when people do nothing but wait until the event happens and taking action JustInTime) entrapment.

-->-- '''Precrime Chief John Anderton''', [[JustInTime Wednesday, April 22, 2054, 8:05am]], ''Film/MinorityReport''

-> ''"Mr. Marks, by mandate of the District of Columbia Precrime Division, I'm placing you under arrest for the '''future''' murder of Sarah Marks and Donald Dubin that was to take place today, April 22 at 0800 hours and four minutes."''
-->-- '''Precrime Chief John Anderton''', [[JustInTime Wednesday, April 22, 2054, 8:04am]], ''Film/MinorityReport''

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': One episode that had Numbuh 3 take on Numbuh 2's FilmNoir identity features a "pre-delinquency unit" that gives Gallagher Elementary School students detentions for future rule-breaking, formed around a student seer who makes drawings out of crayons of said crimes. [[spoiler:Turns out their seer was actually a hoax, being just a boy with heterocromia. His entire motivation was to get everyone of the kids in trouble in order to be the first in line for pizza bagels, since they'd usually run around when he arrived. Unfortunately for him, he did his scheme on a day where they were serving ''lima bean sandwiches'']].

* ''Anime/PsychoPass'' takes place in the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture year 2112]]. Japan is governed by the Sibyl System, which measures many psychological factors. One of the things determined by scanning people is the "Psycho Pass", or the mental stability of a citizen. The colour of a Psycho-Pass is then used to measure the "Crime Coefficient," the probability and severity of the crimes a person might commit. Those who have a high enough "Psycho Pass" are sent to psychiatric therapy or completely euthanized by Dominators, a type of gun used by the police. People who have a high "Psycho Pass", but haven't committed any crimes, are called "latent criminals". They generally have two choices: Rehabilitation, or become an Enforcer for the police.

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Nora was already operating in a questionable moral area in her time in the past due to her alliance with Thawne, but in the fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13266807/1/Ice-cold-deception Ice cold deception]]" she attempts to kill a meta [[WellIntentionedExtremist because of what he'll do a few years in the future that tore her family apart]] (specifically drive Barry and Caitlin to have an affair and conceive a daughter whom Iris would try to kill out of jealousy), only being stopped because Ralph was suspicious and followed her down to the cell before she could kill the man in question.

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Nora was already operating in a questionable moral area in her time in the past due to her alliance with Thawne, but in the fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13266807/1/Ice-cold-deception Ice cold deception]]" she attempts to kill a meta [[WellIntentionedExtremist because of what he'll do a few years in the future that tore her family apart]] (specifically drive Barry and Caitlin to have an affair and conceive a daughter whom Iris would kill out of jealousy), only being stopped because Ralph was suspicious and followed her down to the cell before she could kill the man in question.

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Nora was already operating in a questionable moral area in her time in the past due to her alliance with Thawne, but in the fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13266807/1/Ice-cold-deception Ice cold deception]]" she attempts to kill a meta because of what he’ll do a few years in the future (specifically drive Barry and Caitlin to have an affair and conceive a daughter), only being stopped because Ralph was suspicious and followed her down to the cell before she could kill the man in question.

-->-- '''Precrime Chief John Anderton''', UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, [[JustInTime Wednesday, April 22, 2054, 8:04am]] (''Film/MinorityReport'').

* In the Silver Age, the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} once incarcerated ComicBook/{{Superboy}} in a kryptonite prison, after they had witnessed him committing several acts of wanton destruction through a "futurescope" and concluded that he would become a supervillain in the future. [[spoiler:In the end, it turned out that SuperDickery was in full effect as he was actually destroying an extremely dangerous weapon and things connected to it (which the Legion didn't know about, because everything had been covered up by the government).]]

* On a more mundane level, nearly every country has laws against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(criminal) conspiracy to commit a crime]] and in many jurisdictions you can be arrested for possessing "burglary tools", such as lockpicks, unless you can prove you had them for a lawful purpose. To be charged with a conspiracy, the participants must have committed at least one "overt act" in furtherance of it however (such as obtaining guns to commit a bank robbery before it takes place).

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', the TropeNamer, three psychics are used by the state in order to apprehend and subdue people before they commit murder, keeping said latent criminals into a vegetative state. There is talk of expanding it into lesser crimes, as well, although the AsYouKnow conversation at the beginning explains that only murder is strong enough to trigger a psychic vision[[note]]This is proven false - while murder is indeed the strongest signal, a precog can pick up on weaker visions at close range[[/note]]. During the "Precrime experiment", the captured criminals are detained in a comatose state with electronic files on their future crime. [[spoiler:When the movie ends with the protagonist proving that people don't have to commit the crime they are predicted to commit, the criminals are released because he proved there was enough reasonable doubt to overturn their convictions.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The audio "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho174PrisonersOfFate Prisoners of Fate]]" has the Fifth Doctor arrive on a colony where all apparent crime is predicted by the Chronoscope, but the Doctor becomes suspicious when he not only witnesses a man being arrested for a crime he insists he would never have committed, but the Chronoscope then predicts the Doctor's companions Tegan and Turlough committing a murder when they were just about to leave the planet. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the 'Chronoscope' is really the Doctor's first TARDIS, which has been discreetly manipulating the planet for its own ends]].
** The TV episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler Let's Kill Hitler]]" features the obvious HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct, from Melody Pond ''and'' from new character/crew Justice Department Vehicle #6018. The Justice vehicle is sent to ''painfully'' kill time's greatest criminals just before their death (and ''after'' their crimes). They realize they've arrived too soon in Hitler's personal timeline, and find a bigger fish: The woman who killed the Doctor. Except that she hadn't done that yet, either.

* In the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' PeggySue fic ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'', an accident with a mastered Time Materia throws Cloud approximately fifteen years into the past. His primary objective becomes to kill Sephiroth before he can go insane, raze Nibelheim to the ground, and become an OmnicidalManiac bent on destroying the world.

* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', the TropeNamer, three psychics are used by the state in order to apprehend and subdue people before they commit murder, keeping said latent criminals into a vegetative state. There is talk of expanding it into lesser crimes, as well, although the AsYouKnow conversation at the beginning explains that only murder is strong enough to trigger a psychic vision. During the "Precrime experiment", the captured criminals are detained in a comatose state with electronic files on their future crime. [[spoiler:When the movie ends with the protagonist proving that people don't have to commit the crime they are predicted to commit, the criminals are released because he proved there was enough reasonable doubt to overturn their convictions.]]

* The plot of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' is kicked off by Marcus Holloway, who breaks into a [=CTOS=] server farm to erase the digital files [[MegaCorp Blume]] has on him. His digital file contains his legal record, which stated that he was the prime suspect in a burglary, that he's a skilled programmer, and has a license to own a gun. Although there was no concrete evidence that he was responsible for the robbery, he was convicted only because [=CTOS=] calculated that he was threat because of the afromentioned variables.

* ''Film/JudgeDredd'': Judge Rico, Dredd's clone brother, was dishonorably disgraced and sentenced to the Titan penal colony when he started executing citizens on the basis that they might possibly commit a crime in the future.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler "Let's Kill Hitler"]] features the obvious HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct, from Melody Pond ''and'' from new character/crew Justice Department Vehicle #6018. The Justice vehicle is sent to ''painfully'' kill time's greatest criminals just before their death (and ''after'' their crimes). They realize they've arrived too soon in Hitler's personal timeline, and find a bigger fish: The woman who killed the Doctor. Except that she hadn't done that yet, either.

[[folder:Western Animation]]

One of the implications of {{Seers}} (and TimeTravel) is that we can predict crimes, and so we can prevent the crimes from happening. This trope is about taking evidence from the future, and preventing the criminal from doing something they haven't done yet.