Artificial Intelligence and Law Enforcement

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly able to autonomously detect suspicious activities (‘smart’ law enforcement). In certain domains, technology already fulfills the task of detecting suspicious activities better than human police officers ever could. In such areas, i.e. if and where smart law enforcement technologies actually work well enough, legislators and law enforcement agencies should consider their use. Unfortunately, the German Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice, and the US Supreme Court are all struggling to develop convincing and clear-cut guidelines to direct these legislative and administrative considerations. This article attempts to offer such guidance: First, lawmakers need to implement regulatory provisions in order to maintain human accountability if AI-based law enforcement technologies are to be used. Secondly, AI law enforcement should be used, if and where possible, to overcome discriminatory traits in human policing that have plagued some jurisdictions for decades. Finally, given that smart law enforcement promises an ever more effective and even ubiquitous enforcement of the law—a ‘perfect’ rule of law, in that sense—it invites us as democratic societies to decide if, where, and when we might wish to preserve the freedom to disobey the rule(s) of law.