Artificial Intelligence

FEATURE: The first five-year strategy to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime was recently published by the City of London Police – the lead force on the issue for England and Wales – in an effort to redress a decade of ‘deprioritising’ fraud compared to other crimes; the strategy looks to improve the service to victims, prevent the continuing escalation of fraud, and secure more successful justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: With the growing UK national focus on the benefits of robotic process automation (RPA) – including the appointment of a new National Police Chiefs’ Council lead – local innovation in this area is all the more interesting; Essex Police are among those trying to leverage the maximum potential from this and other new technology, and highlighted some of those developments at a recent one-day conference, as this first in a series of articles on the event by Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explains.

LONG READ: Having previously considered some of the wider issues around policing’s approach to the exponential growth in volume and complexity of data sources for investigations and intelligence gathering, in this latest in a series of features on the police data challenge, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at the concerns around staffing – from skills gaps and accreditation to leadership literacy and implementation.

FEATURE: Remote sensing tech to spot knives, off-the-shelf drones, real-time fingerprint matching at crime scenes, and deepfake detection algorithms – the UK’s recent Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit highlighted a wealth of potential new applications of science and tech, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: Robust performance measurement practices are instrumental in demonstrating police accountability, transparency and improvement, all key steps to strengthening public confidence in policing; but a new RAND Europe study of international approaches has highlighted both the dangers of disjointed police performance measurement, and innovative approaches from law enforcement around the world, as RAND analyst Emma Zürcher explains.

FEATURE: Artificial intelligence was a major item on the agenda at this month’s Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit, where a panel including Policing Minister Chris Philp, National Police Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Paul Taylor, West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor Alison Lowe, and Professor Marion Oswald of the Alan Turing Institute explored how this technology will transform policing, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: With policing facing an expanding array of increasingly complex crime challenges, there is huge potential for digital transformation to help forces tackle that burden; Charlotte Hails, Justice & Policing Lead for Virgin Media O2 Business, argues that closer partnerships between policing and the private sector could help to overcome some of the existing constraints, and unlock the operational efficiencies that can enable forces to thrive.

FEATURE: After a tumultuous week in UK policing – one which saw tensions between the Met and national politicians dominate the headlines, followed by the eventual departure of Home Secretary Suella Braverman – Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley joined the Institute for Government to set out his plans to keep reform of the country’s largest police force on track, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Ben Burr, a Borders, Immigration and Intelligence Specialist with Viable Data who has more than 20 years’ experience in the Home Office, about the challenges of ‘burglary tourism’, the need for real-life policing experience in academic research, and why a global database of wanted, suspected and missing person biometrics could be game changing.

LONG READ: The difficulties policing faces around the scale and complexity of digital data are widely acknowledged, but what about the potential for new technology to overcome some of those challenges? In the second in a series of five features looking at the police use of data, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at some of the ways new tech – including automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning – are being employed in both investigative and preventative approaches.

ANALYSIS: In October the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) marked 10 years in operation, a decade that has seen significant international operations, substantial convictions and drug seizures, and major technological advances; but as Cathy Haenlein, Director of Organised Crime & Policing at the Royal United Services Institute explains, the threat to the UK from serious and organised crime is on the rise, and policing alone cannot overcome that threat.

FEATURE: With the law enforcement use of artificial intelligence (AI) advancing quickly in the UK and internationally, the National Police Chiefs’ Council recently published a new Covenant for Using AI in Policing; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the main principles in the document, and the wider guidance around the ethical, proportionate and transparent use of AI across criminal justice sectors.

FEATURE: UK National Crime Agency Director General Graeme Biggar has warned that policing and the wider criminal justice system is not moving fast enough or far enough in its efforts to combat the shift online in serious and organised crime, and that the roll out of end-to-end encryption on sites such as Facebook would be “tantamount to consciously turning a blind eye” to child abuse, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The 5th International Police Education Conference on 10th November 2023, hosted by the London Policing College and supported by Policing Insight, explores the critical themes of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), digitalization, and public protest. We delve into key insights from five workshops that gathered experts, academics, and professionals from around the world to address the challenges and opportunities in modern policing.

FEATURE: With the UK’s first artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit taking place this week, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at some of the risks posed by ‘frontier AI’, as well as efforts by the UK Government and counterparts in Europe to identify and minimise potentially harmful threats from the cutting-edge technology.

ANALYSIS: New international research on the approach by policing and industry to rural crime has highlighted the multi-million-dollar impact on farms and countryside communities often overlooked by law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Dr Kyle Mulrooney of the University of New England and Inspector Oliver Fisher of Sussex Police about the steps that can be taken to improve prevention and response for farmers and rural communities.

OPINION: Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by New Zealand Police to identify, analyse and investigate criminals and criminal activity; but University of Auckland Associate Professor Alexandra Sims believes that new legislation and independent monitoring is needed to protect against the dangers of the erosion of privacy and algorithmic bias, and ensure compliance with existing frameworks and principles.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of articles focusing on the recent UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to Norfolk Deputy Chief Constable Simon Megicks, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Digital Public Contact, about how improved police communications and engagement, increased digital contact channel options, and tailored one-to-one messaging can help to address the decline in public trust and confidence in policing.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of articles focusing on last month’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to Dr Nicola Millard, Principal Innovation Partner and BT Business Chief Technology Officer, about the importance of people-centred innovation, the need to recognise ‘easy’ as a driver for technological change, and the potential for mixed reality to transform police responses to major critical incidents.

FEATURE: With the use of artificial intelligence (AI) expanding rapidly across society, police face increasing opportunities and challenges around its safe, ethical and reliable adoption and implementation; Caitlyn Kennedy, Policy & Research Officer for the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA), outlines the context and key points behind the Agency’s recently launched Australia New Zealand Police Artificial Intelligence Principles.

INTERVIEW: In the final part of our extended interview series with Professor Laurence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland sought the views of the Metropolitan Police Chief Scientific Officer on misconduct, making tough choices, and how artificial intelligence and live facial recognition might transform the nation’s largest police force.

ANALYSIS: The rapid expansion of the metaverse will leave police facing a whole new raft of challenges and potential criminality; in the second in a series of articles highlighting key topics and debates from last week’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to technology expert Dr David Nugent about policing the metaverse, the balance between free speech and accountability, and how verified digital identities could help to reduce and detect crime while freeing up police resources.

FEATURE: As police leaders and practitioners, government and industry prepare to gather for this week’s Police Digital Summit, Martyn Underhill, a former police officer and police and crime commissioner who is now a consultant on policing issues, reflects on a similar Cityforum summit from earlier in the summer which focused on the challenges, progress and future potential for the police delivery of digital forensics.

ANALYSIS: A new report from the Police Foundation assesses the implications, opportunities and risks for the police service of adopting new contact and engagement technology as it seeks to rebuild public trust and confidence; the Foundation’s Research Director Andy Higgins explains more about the key points from the report.