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<\/p>\nPolice officers could be on patrol with a humanoid \u201crobocop\u201d for a partner within three to five years, a policing expert has said.<\/p>\n
Up to 1,000 British officers are to be polled on whether they would trust artificial intelligence-powered robots to work alongside them. It could mean them acting as \u201cservice\u201d droids to assist members of the public with queries, or as \u201ccrime-fighting\u201d machines that could chase and apprehend suspects.<\/p>\n
Researchers also want to gauge how supportive police would be of using military-style \u201csmart\u201d helmets that could help them track down and identify suspects, record video and share information.<\/p>\n
The prospect may conjure up images from the classic 1980s dystopian sci-fi film RoboCop, in which a dead police officer is reanimated to become a brutally efficient crime-fighting cyborg.<\/p>\n
Experts claim robotic police officers are well on their way to becoming reality as police forces around the world grapple with a shortfall of officers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Weller as the murdered Detroit police officer Alex Murphy in RoboCop<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
Ivan Sun, a professor in the department of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, said of robotic police officers at a science conference this week: \u201cEngaging in the use of force, engaging in high-speed chases \u2014 it\u2019s not in our imagination, it\u2019s coming up \u2026 The sky is really the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a presentation entitled \u201cRobot Cops on Patrol: The Next Generation of Operational Policing\u201d at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Phoenix, Arizona, he added: \u201cIn a robbery, for instance, [robots] could really take control of the scene. They could chase you for five miles and they won\u2019t get tired. At the same time, while they are chasing the suspect, they can scan the suspect\u2019s bio and characteristics \u2026 From 100m away they can know if [the suspect] has a weapon in their possession. A human officer would not be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police forces in China have already tested sending humanoid robots<\/a> \u2014 those that have a human form and walk upright on two legs \u2014 out on patrol with human officers to gauge public reaction. <\/p>\n A police robot interacts with citizens in Qingdao in China\u2019s eastern Shandong province<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Under a project named \u201cIntelligent Police Unit R001\u201d, a number of Chinese forces have begun formally deploying artificially intelligent robots for traffic control. They are designed to issue warnings to drivers who jump red lights and cyclists who ride on pavements. They can even issue fines.<\/p>\n Xavier is a form of wheeled robot officer in Singapore that patrols public places for signs of \u201cundesirable social behaviours\u201d<\/a>, such as smoking or improperly parked bicycles.<\/p>\n Sun said it would only take another three to five years for robotic officers to be out on full patrols in China, and predicted that Britain and other western countries would follow suit, albeit with greater concerns about privacy and safety. \u201cMy prediction is that it is coming very quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sun is working with academics at Northumbria University to poll between 500 and 1,000 British officers. They will be shown two pieces of animated video featuring a cartoon robot police officer and asked how acceptable they find the use of robots in those situations.<\/p>\n In the first scenario, a robot in a police uniform is shown patrolling a busy outdoor public place. It detects and follows the sound of crying and finds a lost child. It contacts police headquarters and stays to reassure the child until help arrives, telling her: \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll stay with you and keep you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n In the second scenario, a robot with a more intimidating design is shown scanning a man in a dark alleyway before the words \u201csuspect confirmed\u201d flash up on its visor. It declares \u201cstop right there, do not move\u201d, before pursuing the man and sending live tracking of the pursuit to police colleagues.<\/p>\n Officers in China showed support for both styles of robot, with a preference for the crime-fighting variety.<\/p>\n Robots can \u201creduce the danger and unpredictability\u201d in potentially violent situations in a similar way to how they are sent in to make initial checks when suspected bombs are found, Sun said.<\/p>\n A study published by Sun in the Asian Journal of Criminology noted: \u201cAmidst intensifying demands on law enforcement and the growing complexity of crime, jurisdictions worldwide have begun integrating artificial intelligence-powered robots into policing operations. Countries such as China, the USA, Singapore and the UAE have piloted robotic systems with varying degrees of autonomy, often incorporating technologies such as facial recognition<\/a> and predictive algorithms.\u201d<\/p>\n Sun said he suspected that British officers would \u201cpay more attention to privacy issues and legal issues than the Chinese officers\u201d, who operate in a more authoritarian society, but said he felt they would still back the use of AI and robotics in policing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police officers could be on patrol with a humanoid \u201crobocop\u201d for a partner within three to five years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-428047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/ac251b9e-0a22-4f3b-b91f-9b45f7c2bb34.jpg\")
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