What Baseball’s Robot Umpire Teaches Us About Police Decision Making

Chief Scott Hughes:

⚾ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥’𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 𝐔𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠

For generations, calling balls and strikes has been one of the hardest jobs in sports. A pitch traveling 95 miles per hour reaches home plate in roughly 400 milliseconds, less than half a second. That’s all the time an umpire has to see the pitch, process its movement, judge its location, and make a decision from a single vantage point.

Now technology can immediately review that call.

And what we’re seeing already is interesting. Some of the best umpires in the world are having multiple calls overturned during spring training games once the system tracks exactly where the ball crossed the plate. Watching this unfold, it’s hard not to think about other professions where decisions have to be made instantly, long before replay or complete information exists.

Not because they’re bad at their jobs.

Not because they lack training or experience.

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.

Once the replay appears on the screen, complete with graphics, tracking data, and perfect perspective, the correct answer suddenly looks obvious. Fans at home can pause, rewind, and analyze it frame by frame.

And with that comes certainty.

But that certainty didn’t exist when the decision had to be made.

It’s hard not to see how often this same dynamic plays out in law enforcement.

Police officers routinely make decisions in rapidly evolving situations without replay, slow motion, or multiple camera angles. They’re interpreting behavior, movement, compliance, tone, and potential threat in real time, often in unpredictable environments where hesitation can carry consequences.

Later, those same moments may be reviewed repeatedly using perspectives that simply weren’t available to the officer at the time, such as body-cam, dash-cam, and cell phone footage.

Experiencing a moment and reviewing it afterward are two very different things.

And truthfully, this isn’t unique to policing. Anyone who has had to make a decision under pressure understands how different real-time judgment feels compared to replay.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧.

Play ball! ⚾