Robodogs won’t save policing but AI behind the scenes just might
After a year of outrages and protests, it’s clear that policing needs to change – but technology such as robot police, facial-recognition software and AI might not be the answer to existential challenges such as low budgets, internet-savvy criminals or human racism.
Take facial recognition. Last year in Detroit, police falsely arrested Robert Williams for shoplifting off the back of an incorrect match using facial-recognition software. Williams was arrested at work and spent the night in jail, despite having nothing to do with the case.
We’ve avoided such headlines in the UK so far, but facial recognition remains controversial. The Court of Appeal ruled against its use by South Wales Police, on the grounds of privacy and data protection, but in early May the new commissioner for the retention and use of biometric materials, Fraser Sampson, told the Financial Times that “police will have no alternative but to use facial recognition along with any other technology that is reasonably available to them”.
The Metropolitan Police has used the tech to scan crowds for wanted individuals, although critics
