Facing the Future of Crime: A Framework for Police Use of Technology

Technological change is rapid and brings many benefits to society. However, for some technologies there will be unintended consequences that create new opportunities for crime, or new ways of committing existing offences. Understanding what these threats are and addressing them is of great importance if we are to benefit responsibly from innovation and change. To illustrate the issues of central importance, we consider two emerging technologies—artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Of course, technological change also brings opportunities to reduce crime and make society safer. Nonetheless, the police adoption of technology should be done in a responsible manner which includes the need to evaluate whether it works to reduce crime, at what cost and how the use of new technologies will be received by the public. We discuss a framework for thinking about the police adoption of new technologies and the evidence that should be collected in advance to inform such decision making.