Exploring and Understanding Law Enforcement’s Relationship with Technology: A Qualitative Interview Study of Police Officers in North Carolina

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into law enforcement has become a concern of contemporary politics and public discourse. In this paper, we qualitatively examine the perspectives of AI technologies based on 20 semi-structured interviews of law enforcement professionals in North Carolina. We investigate how integrating AI technologies, such as predictive policing and autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, impacts the relationships between communities and police jurisdictions. The evidence suggests that police officers maintain that AI plays a limited role in policing but believe the technologies will continue to expand, improving public safety and increasing policing capability. Conversely, police officers believe that AI will not necessarily increase trust between police and the community, citing ethical concerns and the potential to infringe on civil rights. It is thus argued that the trends toward integrating AI technologies into law enforcement are not without risk. Policymaking guided by public consensus and collaborative discussion with law enforcement professionals must aim to promote accountability through the application of responsible design of AI in policing with an end state of providing societal benefits and mitigating harm to the populace. Society has a moral obligation to mitigate the detrimental consequences of fully integrating AI technologies into law enforcement.