AI exposure: Detectives and Criminal Investigators
Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.
Reading this score
computedAt 17.3% of weighted task load, Detectives and Criminal Investigators sits at the 29th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 62.3% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 30 tasks it averages 2.44 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Examine records and governmental agency files to find identifying data about suspects, at 52.5%. The least is Block or rope off scene and check perimeter to ensure that entire scene is secured, at 0.0%. A gap of 52.5% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within protective service occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 18.9% across the group's 26 roles, with 15 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 30 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 6 assisted and 18 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.48 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.76 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.95 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.88 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.24 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.44 | 0-3 |
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examine records and governmental agency files to find identifying data about suspects. | 52.5% | 35.0% | 12.5% | 4.54 | exposed |
| Prepare reports that detail investigation findings. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.82 | exposed |
| Determine scope, timing, and direction of investigations. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Prepare charges or responses to charges, or information for court cases, according to formalized procedures. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.42 | exposed |
| Collaborate with other offices and agencies to exchange information and coordinate activities. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.43 | exposed |
| Analyze completed police reports to determine what additional information and investigative work is needed. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.62 | assisted |
| Examine records to locate links in chains of evidence or information. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.54 | assisted |
| Record progress of investigation, maintain informational files on suspects, and submit reports to commanding officer or magistrate to authorize warrants. | 33.3% | 29.2% | 37.5% | 4.63 | exposed |
| Summon medical help for injured individuals and alert medical personnel to take statements from them. | 32.5% | 42.5% | 25.0% | 4.37 | assisted |
| Notify command of situation and request assistance. | 32.5% | 42.5% | 25.0% | 4.17 | assisted |
| Provide information to lab personnel concerning the source of an item of evidence and tests to be performed. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.40 | assisted |
| Notify, or request notification of, medical examiner or district attorney representative. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.34 | assisted |
| Obtain and verify evidence by interviewing and observing suspects and witnesses or by analyzing records. | 7.2% | 17.8% | 75.0% | 4.77 | untouched |
| Identify case issues and evidence needed, based on analysis of charges, complaints, or allegations of law violations. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Check victims for signs of life, such as breathing and pulse. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Maintain surveillance of establishments to obtain identifying information on suspects. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Perform undercover assignments and maintain surveillance, including monitoring authorized wiretaps. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Note, mark, and photograph location of objects found, such as footprints, tire tracks, bullets and bloodstains, and take measurements of the scene. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.61 | untouched |
| Secure deceased body and obtain evidence from it, preventing bystanders from tampering with it prior to medical examiner's arrival. | 3.8% | 8.8% | 87.5% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Preserve, process, and analyze items of evidence obtained from crime scenes and suspects, placing them in proper containers and destroying evidence no longer needed. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.66 | untouched |
| Organize scene search, assigning specific tasks and areas of search to individual officers and obtaining adequate lighting as necessary. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Obtain facts or statements from complainants, witnesses, and accused persons and record interviews, using recording device. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.66 | untouched |
| Search for and collect evidence, such as fingerprints, using investigative equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Prepare and serve search and arrest warrants. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Obtain summary of incident from officer in charge at crime scene, taking care to avoid disturbing evidence. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Testify before grand juries concerning criminal activity investigations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Secure persons at scene, keeping witnesses from conversing or leaving the scene before investigators arrive. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Participate or assist in raids and arrests. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Question individuals or observe persons and establishments to confirm information given to patrol officers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.45 | untouched |
| Block or rope off scene and check perimeter to ensure that entire scene is secured. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.