Can AI Help Police Officers Solve Crimes?
Law enforcement is in charge of public safety, and must handle all of the challenges that come with that. Luckily, police officers are able to rely on technology for many parts of their job. In recent years, artificial intelligence in law enforcement has become an important aspect of police work globally. As AI-based police technology becomes increasingly essential to law enforcement, areas like crime prevention and prediction are going through major changes. Predictive policing is just one of the results to come out of this transformation, with other policing practices undergoing significant adjustments in the name of public safety.AI in Police Work Today
1. Facial Recognition
Facial recognition technology is crucial to police departments. Police officers use facial recognition to identify criminals on the run and missing persons using image data. If you’ve ever seen footage from a street camera, you know how low quality these images are. As you may imagine, reviewing these images for key information is difficult and labor-intensive. Many police departments don’t even have enough people or specialists to handle the volume of image analysis needed to solve all of their cases. AI in law enforcement promises greater accuracy than humans in matching faces and saves officers time. Machines can use parameters to identify faces beyond what humans can typically detect. Some AI technology today is even advanced enough to find a single face in a crowd at a stadium – something that recently helped China catch a criminal at a crowded sports event.2. Cameras
In most major cities, cameras are everywhere on the streets and in businesses. Law enforcement often relies on this footage to review crimes after the fact and catch criminals. AI can not only apply facial recognition to these images but also identify objects and complex activities like car accidents taking place. Object identification is especially important for police officers trying to monitor large events, such as music festivals or marathons. Because they can’t be in multiple places at once, officers can rely on AI in law enforcement to send an alert if someone in the area has a weapon or is acting unusually and may be a perceived threat. Object identification has other uses as well. Through analyzing street footage, AI can identify vehicles based on set characteristics. For example, the machine could show you every blue minivan that passed through a given intersection in an hour. Where this becomes useful is when officers are looking for a stolen vehicle, or a criminal on the run, and need results quickly. Law enforcement agencies are also working with drone cameras, which allow them to explore more surface area and engage in quicker search-and-rescue efforts. These drones are naturally equipped with AI facial and object recognition capabilities.3. Predictive Policing
AI predictive policing refers to the ability to predict where crimes will occur, the individuals who will commit them, the types of crime, and who the victims will be. Predictive policing is a controversial topic, but it’s still a long way from becoming commonplace. Companies and police departments are just starting to test out predictive policing systems. These systems could eventually provide significant strides forward in predicting and ideally preventing crimes.
4. Robots
No, we’re not close to replacing our entire police force with robots anytime soon. But, police departments are turning to robots to handle tasks ranging from the mundane to the most dangerous. Some countries are indeed testing out robots who act as replacement police officers. Dubai is experimenting with street robots that can transmit data back to headquarters to be reviewed by humans there. They’re also equipped with touchscreens for reporting crimes and can communicate in six different languages. Robots can also complete more complex tasks on behalf of police officers. They can enter dangerous locations and identify humans and objects that pose potential threats, a safer alternative to risking police officer lives. There are robots that are also equipped with the ability to detonate bombs, improving public safety without putting officers in harm’s way.5. Non-violent Crimes
AI is adept at spotting anomalies in patterns, and this lends itself well to discovering non-violent crimes like fraud and money-laundering. Banks have already dived in on the AI revolution as being integral to their security, and law enforcement is partnering with these entities to catch these kinds of crimes. Through analyzing images, AI can pick out counterfeit goods and counterfeit bills with a high probability of accuracy, spotting details that the human eye may miss. Read more about the applications of AI in police work in this FutureGrasp article by Tom Campbell.What’s the Future of AI in Law Enforcement?
