Ethnographic Research on the Use of AI in Policing

• In Event: The Evolution Accountability: EIS, Police Reform, and Incident Characteristics

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms are playing an increasingly significant role in law enforcement. Real-time algorithmic applications are being used more frequently with the aim of responding to incidents earlier and more effectively. This has implications for how police professionals carry out their work. While they have discretion within legal boundaries to fulfill their enforcement duties, they must also account for their decisions and actions. Accountability can take various forms, from formal adherence to laws and regulations to informal, professional responsibility where professionals must determine the best course of action in specific situations. The question is how police professionals fulfill their professional accountability and how it relates to the use of real-time algorithmic applications. Based on ethnographic research (approx. 150+ hours of participatory observations and 20 interviews), insights are provided how violence detection technology is used by the Netherlands National Police. The study reveals how these employees experience and value this technology and to what extent they incorporate it into their decision-making and actions. Specifically, the study examines how suchlike technology interacts with police professionals’ interpretations of accountability. These insights contribute to filling a theoretical and empirical gap in policing studies regarding the deployment of real-time AI applications.

Author

• Martijn Wessels, Erasmus University Rotterdam / TNO