Will AI replace Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
22/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 38% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 4% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 31% of the work
What the job involves
Maintain order and protect life and property by enforcing local, tribal, state, or federal laws and ordinances. Perform a combination of the following duties: patrol a specific area; direct traffic; issue traffic summonses; investigate accidents; apprehend and arrest suspects, or serve legal processes of courts. Includes police officers working at educational institutions.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Record facts to prepare reports that document incidents and activities.
Within reach(9)
- Verify that the proper legal charges have been made against law offenders.
- Monitor traffic to ensure motorists observe traffic regulations and exhibit safe driving procedures.
- Photograph or draw diagrams of crime or accident scenes and interview principals and eyewitnesses.
- Evaluate complaint and emergency-request information to determine response requirements.
- Notify patrol units to take violators into custody or to provide needed assistance or medical aid.
and 4 more
Out of reach(20)
- Identify, pursue, and arrest suspects and perpetrators of criminal acts.
- Provide for public safety by maintaining order, responding to emergencies, protecting people and property, enforcing motor vehicle and criminal laws, and promoting good community relations.
- Investigate illegal or suspicious activities.
- Render aid to accident survivors and other persons requiring first aid for physical injuries.
- Review facts of incidents to determine if criminal act or statute violations were involved.
and 15 more
Also called
Deputy Sheriff · Campus Police Officer · Highway Patrol Officer · K-9 Handler (Canine Handler) · Patrol Officer · Police Officer · Public Safety Officer (PSO) · State Trooper
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics