Policing Police Robots

Abstract

The possibility of police robots capable of lethal force and with some degree of autonomy raises questions about what sort of limits and regulations should be imposed on robotic policing. Police robotics raise special questions because of the powers entrusted to the police. This essay considers the law and policy implications of a future where police robots are sophisticated, cheap, and widespread. Drawing upon the rapidly developing body of robotics law scholarship, as well as upon technological advances developing in military robotics — from which domestic policing will surely borrow — we can anticipate well ahead of its practical adoption the kinds of regulatory challenges we will face with the future of robotic policing.