Edinburgh Napier University

  Driven by social and technological change and the imperative to enhance efficiency, police have in recent years adopted various technologies to transform their interactions with the public. In the UK, these initiatives often fall under ‘transformation’ agendas, promoting ‘channel choice’ strategies to facilitate public interactions through various technologically mediated platforms, such as reporting crimes online using form-based or chat functions. Artificial Intelligence already plays a role in some of these interactions, which is likely only to increase in the future. In this study we examine preferences and perceptions in online crime reporting. Participants read a fictitious ‘chat’ between a victim of crime and a police operator identified as either a human or a chatbot. Although the chats were identical, we find a consistent preference for human operators over chatbots across all scenarios. Human operators were thought to provide clearer explanations, although there were no significant differences in judgements of interpersonal treatment or decision neutrality between human and chatbot operators. Participants also responded more positively to the process when (a) the crime involved was less serious and (b) when the outcome was active (police attendance) rather than passive (simple recording). Our findings underscore the importance of procedural justice and communication clarity in online crime reporting systems – and perhaps of human interaction when reporting crimes.