Catching Crooks? There’s an App for That in CBS’ ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’

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We’ve grown accustomed to crowdsourcing information like restaurant recommendations, movie reviews and real-time traffic tips, but could we someday use crowdsourcing to catch criminals?

That’s the general premise of the new CBS techno-drama series Wisdom of the Crowd (Sundays beginning Oct. 1 at 8:30pm ET/PT). Jeremy Piven (Entourage) plays Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jeffrey Tanner, who creates an app, Sophe, that mines publicly shared information that he believes will help find his daughter’s murderer. Tanner’s app revolutionizes detective work, but the new technology opens a Pandora’s box of problems.

We may have to deal with those problems in the real world sooner than we think. Wisdom of the Crowd executive producer Ted Humphrey says there are already a number of platforms like Sophe being developed. “We would be burying our heads in the sand to say this will never happen,” Humphrey says. “I think a better way to address it is to say what would be: What would be a way that this could happen where we could actually control it and try and use it for the greater good while acknowledging the potentially dark aspects of it?”

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.