Umeå University researchers, working with the university's Police Education Unit and the Catalan police authority Mossos d'Esquadra, have studied how trustworthy AI combined with mixed reality, mainly on Microsoft HoloLens headsets, can support police decision-making in real time. The project's test environment is police vehicle stops, where officers face situations ranging from low to high danger.
The study
The multi-stage study was run with police education programmes and law enforcement agencies in Sweden and Catalonia. Before the practical tests, participants took part in two preparatory workshops: one educating them in trustworthy AI, and another involving hands-on mixed reality use in standard police training scenarios.
A total of 39 police officers and instructors participated in the study, and the participants also carried out a high-risk vehicle stop in a tactical exercise.
Results and context
The release reports that the police officers had a very positive attitude towards the system's usefulness, ease of use and trustworthiness. The project is part of HumanE AI, an EU-funded research programme, and the findings were also published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research.
