AI and Reputation Management in Public Organisations: Balancing the Dimensions of Reputation at the Dutch Police

This qualitative case study investigates how the Dutch police manage, and respond to, opportunities and threats to the performative, moral, legal-procedural and technical dimensions of their organisation reputation that arise during AI integration. Data from semi-structured interviews and publicly available documents are analysed through a thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the use of AI creates opportunities for the agency’s performative and technical reputation, while creating risks for its moral and, to a lesser extent, legal-procedural reputation. Furthermore, four overarching themes emerged. In navigating reputational tensions the Dutch police (a) invested in internal capacity and research collaborations on AI to rebrand itself as a technically competent, responsible, and caring agency, (b) created strategic ambiguity about the relative importance of the different dimensions to accommodate conflicting expectations of various audiences, (c) faced challenges in influencing audiences’ perceptions and (d) moved from a reactive- to a more pro-active approach to communication. Overall, these findings contribute to bureaucratic reputation theory by illustrating how public organisations navigate reputational dilemmas during AI integration.