Real robocops: how AI is changing policing

July 2016 marked a before and after in the annals of law. Under fire from a suspect who wanted to "kill white officers," and with a dozen badges down, the Dallas police force sent a bomb-bearing robot in to deal with lone gunman, Micah Johnson. The case is thought to have been the first time a U.S. police force had used a robot in a show of lethal force. More widely, though, police forces around the world are making more and more use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to combat crime. The results are often less striking than the Dallas shootout, but no less vital in helping to maintain law and order. In the United Kingdom, for instance, an AI system called VALCRI (which stands for Visual Analytics for Sense-Making in Criminal Intelligence Analysis) is helping police spot patterns that could help solve crimes, acting as a kind of robot Miss Marple.