According to The Verge, Europol’s Innovation Lab has published a 48-page “foresight” report sketching a near-future scenario for 2035 where intelligent machines are ubiquitous. The report, titled “The Unmanned Future(s): The impact of robotics and unmanned systems on law enforcement,” imagines hypotheticals like populist “bot-bashing” riots over job losses and care robots being hijacked to spy on or groom victims. It warns that autonomous vehicles and drones could be hacked as weapons, with scavenged drones from war zones like Ukraine potentially used in terrorist attacks. The document suggests police may need tools like “RoboFreezer guns” and recommends increased funding for training and a shift to “3D policing” to keep up. Europol’s executive director, Catherine De Bolle, states the integration of unmanned systems into crime is already here, citing current use by smugglers and a growing online market for criminal drone pilots.
Experts push back on the timeline
Now, here’s the thing: the robotics experts The Verge spoke to weren’t fully buying the rapid, widespread uptake Europol is predicting. Giovanni Luca Masala from the University of Kent pointed out that predictions for 2035 are tough, and adoption isn’t just about the tech. It depends on cost, market forces, and mass-production capability—all of which could slam the brakes on this robot-dense future. Martim Brandão from King’s College London was skeptical about specific claims, like terrorist attacks using scavenged drones or major violent backlashes against automation, saying he wasn’t aware of evidence supporting those leaps. So while the scenarios are flashy, the actual road to 2035 might be a lot bumpier and less robot-filled.
The missed accountability problem
But the most critical pushback from experts wasn’t about the timeline. It was about a glaring omission. Brandão argued the report focuses on criminals exploiting robots but ignores a potentially bigger risk: police doing the same thing. “They don’t talk about the potential for police forces themselves to invade privacy and exploit or create security vulnerabilities,” he said. Given global trends and past cases of police misconduct, he’s “more concerned about police and intelligence agencies exploiting robot vulnerabilities than terrorists.” That’s a huge point. In a future where police are armed with advanced drones and surveillance bots, who holds *them* accountable? The report seems to frame tech as a neutral tool for good guys versus bad guys, but the reality of its use will be far messier.
The signs are already here
Europol isn’t just dreaming, though. They’re connecting dots from today’s headlines. Smugglers already use drones to drop contraband into prisons. Remember that Starlink-equipped narco submarine? There are real-world cases of robot vacuums being hacked. And the philosophical debate about how we treat machines—is it okay to kick a robot dog?—is already happening. So the foundational issues of misuse, ethical gray areas, and tech being co-opted for crime are absolutely present. The leap to drone swarms and robo-grooming is speculative, but it’s built on a very real trajectory. Basically, the seeds of this “unmanned future” are already sprouting.
So what do we do about it?
Masala agreed with the report’s core recommendation: police need better training and equipment in AI, robotics, and cybersecurity. “If you have a policeman that barely uses equipment like a drone, you can’t compete with a skilled enemy,” he noted. This is where the practical side of tech adoption matters. For industrial and law enforcement applications, reliability is non-negotiable. This demand for robust, purpose-built hardware is why specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, exist. The hardware foundation needs to be as secure and capable as the software running on it. The bigger question, which the report sidesteps, is how we build the legal and ethical frameworks *now* to govern this tech—whether it’s in a factory, a police station, or a home—before the 2035 scenario, realistic or not, has a chance to arrive.
