PULSE SYMPOSIUM

Imagining the Legal Landscape: Technology and the Law in 2030

Policing Police Robots

UCLA LAW REVIEW DISCOURSE

Elizabeth E. Joh

ABSTRACT

Just as they will change healthcare, manufacturing, and the military, robots have the
potential to produce big changes in policing. We can expect that at least some robots
used by the police in the future will be artificially intelligent machines capable of using
legitimate coercive force against human beings. Police robots may decrease dangers to
police officers by removing them from potentially volatile situations. Those suspected
of crimes may also risk less injury if robots can assist the police in conducting safer
detentions, arrests, and searches. At the same time, however, the use of robots introduces
new questions about how the law and democratic norms should guide policing
decisions—questions which have yet to be addressed in any systematic way. How we
design, regulate, or even prohibit some uses of police robots requires a regulatory agenda
now to address foreseeable problems of the future.

AUTHOR

Professor of Law, U.C. Davis School of Law. Thanks to the participants of the Program on
Understanding Law, Science, and Evidence (PULSE) “Imagining the Legal Landscape:
Technology and the Law in 2030,” Ryan Calo, and Michael Froomkin for their helpful
comments.

64 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 516 (2016)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ............................................................................................................518
I. Putting Police Robots in Context .............................................................523
A. What Is a Robot?.......................................................................................523
B. Military Robots..........................................................................................526
II. The Challenges Posed by Polic Robots......................................................529
A. How Much Control Should Humans Have Over Police Robots?............530
B. How Much Force Should Be Used by Police Robots................................533
C. What Is Robotic “Reasonable Force”?........................................................535
D. Will Robotic Police Reinforce Social Inequality........................................538
E. Who Will Decide These Questions?..........................................................540
Conclusion ................................................................................................................543

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