Teleoperated Communication Robot: A Law Enforcement Perspective

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to investigate the use of communication robots as tools to increase the safety of first responders (specifically, law enforcement officers) during social interactions or first-response situations. This paper functions as the first stage of our investigation into communication robots for use by first responders. The law enforcement officers (LEOs) in our study were provided with a mobile communication robot to determine if such robots could be of use in the public domain for the benefit of both civilians and LEOs. As part of our study, LEOs participated in training sessions where they worked with non-weaponized teleoperated communication robots and completed pretest-posttest surveys. The surveys captured LEOs’ perceptions and attitudes towards the robot and examined the impact of robot design features on LEOs’ acceptance of the communication robot. This paper discusses the significance and potential use of communication robots as tools in the future of law enforcement. Our future works include conducting additional studies involving affected stakeholders (e.g., citizen communities) and assessing/mitigating any potential negative impact of communication robots.