How law enforcement may use self-driving vehicles
There’s no doubt that autonomous vehicles (AVs) will fundamentally alter the way we live our lives, and whilst the technology is still a ways off from being fully adopted we can already begin to see some of its impacts. In this article, I will explore the ways law enforcement may utilize AVs.
Person-less patrols
Autonomous police vehicles (APVs) can serve as observation instruments. Equipped with 360-degree cameras, infrared sensors, lidar, and microphones, APVs will be able to cruise around cities monitoring and recording everything. A single police officer could monitor the feeds from multiple vehicles at once. This improved efficiency would lead to less personnel required. Additionally, police departments would be able to use people from other cities to monitor the APV feeds, thus decreasing their overall headcount (although the Solow Paradox may suggest otherwise, and the fact that 55% of police officers are members of unions undoubtedly makes their jobs more secure). Combining APVs with complementary technologies such as facial recognition, gunshot detection, automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) and machine learning models trained to detect potential crimes will increase efficiency even more.
APVs will also make police officers safer. A study by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that during a five-year period starting in 2010, 40% of deaths of police officers whilst on duty were caused by automobile accidents.
Some police departments are already using or testing autonomous patrols: Dubai has been using APVs since 2017, whilst the Knightscope is being used in places like San Francisco, New York City, Salt Lake City, and others.
Mass Surveillance
Police are already using telematics data from cars to solve cases. In the US, there is legal precedent that allows police to seize car data without a warrant. Not only can police seize your car’s data but they could theoretically seize data from every car on the road. This would mean that we would essentially not have anonymity in public any more: since every AV will have 360-degree cameras and there are few places in cities where you are not in sight of a car. Police departments could use this mass surveillance network to monitor entire cities. Additionally, this data can be stored and used in the future.
Backdoor control
For crime reduction and national security reasons, law enforcement will likely ask for backdoor access to take control over autonomous cars on the road. Additionally, regulations could be made that require logs of all AVs to be provided upon request to law enforcement. Waymo is already working with the Chandler Arizona police department on potentially including a kill-switch that would allow police to shut down an AV.
Restructuring police requirements
The primary time most people in the US interact with police officers is during traffic stops. As police patrols are replaced by automated AV patrols and as more private car trips are replaced by AV trips, many people will have less direct encounters with police. Furthermore, police in the US make a total of over $6 billion in fines and forfeitures from speeding tickets. As Level 4 and 5 AVs become widespread, this will present a significant revenue loss for police departments. However, since fully-autonomous vehicles will virtually eliminate the need for traffic enforcement, and since efficiency of patrolling cities will increase, there will be less officers needed and they will be able to focus on more serious crimes. Meanwhile, the potential for criminals to utilize AVs in the same way will present major new hurdles for police.
