Artificial intelligence (AI) is making an impact in the field of justice and law enforcement. The technology helps reduce court dockets by helping judges speed up the resolution of cases.

A junior civil judge of a lower court in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India ruled on a property dispute in August by citing past legal judgments generated by AI.

The defendants appealed the ruling to the state high court, arguing that the judgments used were fake. The high court ruled that the non-existent orders and the judge’s honest mistake of citing them do not set aside the ruling where legal principles were correctly applied to the facts of the case, the BBC reported.

The defendants elevated their appeal to India’s Supreme Court, which sided with them. It said the use of AI while making judgements was not simply “an error in decision making” but an act of “misconduct.”

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, AI powers the megalopolis’ Smart Sampa video surveillance system that searches for fugitives and can livestream crimes in progress through 40,000 public and private security cameras.

Introduced in 2024, the technology’s AI facial recognition system compares images caught by its cameras with those in judicial databases, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. A match then alerts police, who make the arrest.

Smart Sampa can also identify stolen vehicles, trace suspicious activity, and alert police immediately to potential incidents.

Through Smart Sampa, police have arrested 3,000 fugitives, while nearly 4,000 people have been caught in the act of committing a crime, according to AFP.

However, it is not foolproof. During its initial year of operation, at least 59 people it identified as fugitives and who were subsequently detained, including an 80-year-old who was confused with a rapist, were freed because they were not the correct persons.