Artificial intelligence and the protection of the right to life in law enforcement operations

• Author: Marcin Marcinko
• Pages: 382-402

382

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of the right to life in law enforcement

operations

Marcin Marcinko1

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1. INTRODUCTION

In 1987, the American action film directed by Paul Verhoeven with the

intriguingly sounding title “RoboCop” debuted in the cinemas. The protagonist

of this film is a police officer Alex Murphy, who almost died as a result of serious

wounds suffered in a fight with gangsters, but he manages to be “revived”

as a result of an experiment by scientists from the OCP megacorporation,

implementing the RoboCop program. Murphy becomes a cyborg, a police officer-

machine, driven by an electronic system and integrated circuits. Scientists have

transferred organic elements into the mechanical armoured body, such as the

brain and face of the wounded police officer, and from then on he is to perform

his service with absolute obedience, according to programmed directives set by

the corporation. However, thanks to the memories that he can recall, Murphy

discovers his old identity and gradually regains his humanity2.

1 Dr. iur., Assistant Professor, Chair of Public International Law, Faculty of Law and

Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków; Coordinator of the International Humanitarian

Law and Human Rights Centre at the Jagiellonian University; Chairman of the Polish Commission for

Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law at the Main Board of the Polish Red Cross.

2 It is worth mentioning that in 2014, a remake of this film was made (directed by José Padilha)

under the same title. The fictional axis of both versions of “RoboCop” is similar (in both films, a fatally

wounded police officer becomes a hybrid of man and machine as a result of an experimental project),

but it seems that the 2014 version put more emphasis on the human nature of the police cyborg.

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The above-mentioned film belongs to the science fiction genre – its action

takes place in the city of Detroit (Michigan) in an undefined but not too distant

future. In fact, in the 1980s, the “robotisation” of law enforcement services

could appear to be pure fiction, a dream of scientists that will be difficult to

realize. Interestingly, the screenwriters even predicted what problems the police

might face if fully automated officers were brought into service – after all, the

RoboCop, being a combination of man and machine, was to be a response to the

malfunctioning prototypes of the ED-209 police combat robots. However, at the

beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century, some countries already

have robots that are used by the police services and can successfully replace

human officers. Artificial intelligence and robots controlled by it are used, among

others, to patrol the streets, collect information and evidence, track suspected

persons, remove vehicle wrecks from accident sites, detect and neutralize bombs,

and even to forecast where and what type of crimes are likely to occur in order to

optimize law enforcement resources.

These are activities that generally do not require the police robot to use force

against people. However, there are doubts as to whether robots with artificial

intelligence would be equally good at managing with kidnapping, armed robbery

or civil unrest – that is, generally speaking, when the success or failure of the

police may depend on the use of violence, including the use of lethal force.

When discussing the increasing use of artificial intelligence, this issue cannot

be underestimated, given that the protection of human life is a priority for States

governed by the rule of law and respecting human and civil rights. The use of

lethal force requires compliance with the legal standards formulated for the

purposes of law enforcement operations. Therefore, the use of force must be

strictly necessary and proportionate to the aim pursued, and must, in addition,

be preceded by all possible precautionary measures. Understanding the issue

in question requires clarification of the above-mentioned legal requirements

and formulation of an answer to the question whether, at the present stage of

technological development, robots equipped with artificial intelligence are able

to maintain high standards of protection of the right to life required during each

operation to restore and maintain security and public order. Nevertheless, these

considerations should be preceded by a short presentation of contemporary

applications of artificial intelligence in activities carried out by the police,

including the role that robots equipped with artificial intelligence can play in the

broadly-defined operations in the field of law enforcement.