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Future of Policing - Robocop reconsidered

March 1999

Many of you will have seen Robocop, the cybernetic reconstruction of a badly damaged policeman. While it may not be desirable to convert all our police in that way, we may be able to give them much of that functionality without intruding into their nervous systems.

The police are already sophisticated users of technology. They already use data mining techniques and image recognition systems to track down criminals. They make good use of video cameras and other monitoring systems as well as mobile and fixed communications. In an age where a high proportion of crime is computer related, they need high skill levels in IT. Obviously, they will continue to benefit from office IT improvements such as language processing and conferencing, but it is much more fun to look at how future technology will help out on the street.

In the future, we can expect more mobile use of IT. Imagine equipping every constable with a pair of spectacles with a video projector in the arm and mirror on the lens, so that they can see a screen hanging in the air a meter in front of them. Take this ten or fifteen years on and the whole lot can be condensed into a pair of active contact lenses, giving a full 3d overlay without the conspicuousness and fragility of spectacles. Imagine also that tiny video cameras are also built into the arms or lenses. A remote computer can thus superimpose images and information on their field of view, just like robocop or terminator. They can adjust the contrast all the way from totally invisible overlay to compete real world substitution. With state of the art satellite positioning and a modicum of image recognition, the computer could make the superimposition align accurately with the real world, regardless of where the wearer looks, similar to cruise missile technology. With a bit more recognition technology, which is only a matter of time, the officer could have people's names superimposed on their image, with known offenders highlighted. However, providing extra information by itself might add to the confusion, and part of the computer's ability would be used to subtract irrelevant information and images from the field of view by superimposing neutral images. The officer would then be able to concentrate on the important images. This technology is already making its way into fighter aircraft cockpit development, where instead of windows, the pilot would see a screen showing the real world with the clutter removed and important data enhanced.

Of course, during an arrest, the officer may have no personal knowledge of the offender but would be able to read an appropriate 'greeting' provided by the remote computer on the head up autocue. Navigation could easily be integrated into this system so that when an emergency arises, officers could be navigated along the currently optimal route to the scene, making full use of road traffic information etc.

Just like on robocop, it would be feasible to provide summary of appropriate law and advice for particular circumstances. It could also be feasible to automatically record and store everything the officer sees and hears. This could be encrypted and transmitted continuously back to base to make losing or tampering with evidence more difficult. By linking this to a recording of brain impulses via a simple electrode, it would even be possible to show later whether an officer had noticed something.

Bits of this technology are available today in the form of CamNet. This apparatus allows images to be sent either way between an officer and base, so that, for instance, a distant senior officer could be telepresent at a riot scene and see what is happening effectively through someone else's eyes. This could greatly improve riot control. The apparatus also allows the senior officer to relay images and audio instructions to the officer present at the scene, e.g. 'arrest that man over there!'. In a more positive use, an officer may be guided in giving first aid to a road casualty before the ambulance arrives.

We may see future police equipped with various scanning and analysis devices. Material and DNA analysis may be performed, helping detective work enormously. Real time computer analysis of real time images from an officer's eyes could effectively provide superior vision. Just like Geordi La Forge on Star Trek, a human officer could have enhanced vision because electronic devices can see a far wider spectrum. Image enhancement could convert these images to the visible spectrum so that the officer could see in the dark, detect hot spots, see magnetic or electric fields, be aware or radiation, or have patterns highlighted. The officer may also be able to look at a wall and see whether someone is behind it using the latest radar and low intensity X-ray technology. The computer may often be able to provide useful extra information to assist an officer, such as the physical layout of a building based on the recorded plans. Just by looking at the back of a video recorder, the remote computer would be able to advise on whether it is recorded as stolen, and perhaps the name of the person who first bought it.

Data mining can tell a lot about a person's behaviour. The use of credit and loyalty cards can reveal a person's travels and purchases. With road tolling, electronic cash and large numbers of video surveillance cameras, together with number-plate and even face recognition, and even the locations of their recent mobile phone calls, it may soon be able to paint an almost complete picture of a person's recent activity. While criminals may choose to avoid many of these to make the case against them more difficult, for innocent people who carry on using them, this may add valuable evidence of their innocence.

But part of the job of the police is in crime deterrence and they constantly advise on improving security, use of neighbourhood watch groups, use of alarms and so on. We already see many traffic speed enforcement cameras. It would be possible but perhaps socially unacceptable to electronically limit cars to the local speed limit to make speeding impossible rather than simply punishing it. Some neighbourhood watch areas may record footage from surveillance cameras constantly. With digital cameras becoming better and cheaper all the time, and with wireless networks able to carry their information at low cost, this should be feasible quite soon. Chips that can transmit using built in radio will soon be commonplace in consumer electronics and this will make it much easier to ensure that they only work while in the house they were bought for, while enabling their easy tracking when they are removed. Many cars already have location devices added in hard to find positions, so that many car thieves have already been caught. It is already possible to fit cars with devices that disable the car just by transmitting a particular radio signal. Whether these could be made compulsory with the police having the right to access the code for any vehicle can be debated, but certainly it would be possible. As the chips-with-everything lifestyle grows, crime rates may fall, leaving only the most professional of criminals. Increasing sophistication of electronics will make it possible to invent growing numbers of deterrent and tracking techniques, with potential for ever increasing police control. There will be a balance between crime rate and police power as always.

Finally, occasionally police have to resort to force. One of the favourite ideas in future police films is the gun that will only work for the officer to whom it was assigned. Again, this is already possible, and bullets could even be digitally signed just like Judge Dread's, though perhaps not necessarily with actual DNA samples. We are only waiting for its use to be made commonplace. Smart guns might even be enabled or disabled remotely according to the images being picked up by the integrated video cameras, automatically analysed to determine the level of risk to the officer and other people before an automated decision. After bullet launch, smart bullets might even be directed to disable rather than kill the target. Since bullets spin quickly during flight, it is possible to steer them to a degree by altering their shape, which could be done using piezoelectric materials in the tip.

But why bother with bullets at all when the phaser has already been invented. Of course, we haven't got the full capability yet to make the victim vanish without trace on a kill setting. But what does exist is a gun that uses a pair of laser beams to create a plasma between the gun and target, along which an electric current can be sent to stun the victim, rather like today's taser but without the metal wires. For no particularly good reason except that it could be done, the current could carry a digital message reciting the law that the victim is being punished for breaching, a literal Law Giver.

In less violent occasions, a smart truncheon may be used, with strain gauges recording the exact amount of force used by the officer.

So policing, as with much of the future, has been well explored in recent science fiction. And just like most recent science fiction, most of the technology is feasible. What is less certain is the social acceptance.