Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Support for RoboCops: Measuring Effects of Attitudes Towards Police and Policing Technologies

2022; Springer Science+Business Media; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-93715-7_17

1865-0937

Anna Gurinskaya,

Policing Practices and Perceptions

Despite such an intensive spread of digital technologies in policing and law enforcement not too many studies have addressed citizens attitudes towards these shifts. If robots are to be introduced for performing policing function it is not only necessary to test whether they are effective in fulfilling their tasks, but also whether citizens perceive them as safe and capable of providing protection. We use data obtained from a sample of 570 students from the two large universities in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia to explore attitudes towards use of robots in street patrolling. Results show that young people are willing to accept surveillance in public places, but are unsupportive of online surveillance tools and regulations. Our research finds that half of the young citizens of St. Petersburg are supportive of robocops patrolling the streets. These positive attitudes are produced by fear of police and fear of victimization. They are enhanced by acceptance of other surveillance technologies (such as surveillance cameras) and willingness to use other digital innovations (such as accident-reporting apps and unmanned cars). When technology acceptance is not considered gender differences can be observed: compared to females, males have greater support for robots. Perceptions of police legitimacy are not related to attitudes to robots used for patrolling.