Artificial Intelligence

OPINION: The prospect of the increasing police use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly around predictive policing, have prompted concerns over potential bias, and the need for transparency and explainability; Dr Nick Evans of the University of Tasmania believes that with the right safeguards in place, the use of AI could establish built-in objectivity for policing decisions, and potentially greater trust and confidence in police decision-making.

OPINION: Among the many reasons given for the ‘unacceptable’ levels of police detections of acquisitive crime in England and Wales, effective investigative technology (or the lack of it) has a key part to play; Iain Donnelly, a former digital investigations and intelligence force lead and now advisor to technology companies working with policing, believes a lack of understanding among senior leaders, a default of dealing with large corporates, and the overfocus on digital forensics are among the key issues.

FEATURE: Data is widely recognised as a key enabler in policing’s digital transformation, but the quality of that data is crucial, especially when it comes to location; Phill Ridley of 1Spatial, Durham Chief Constable Jo Farrell, and Teresa Ashforth, PND Data Quality & Standards Lead at the Home Office, highlight the benefits that can be achieved through the use of UPRNs, and the steps that all forces can take to improve their data quality.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this week’s London Policing College workshop on policing public protest in Germany, keynote speaker Dr Bernd Bürger of the Bavarian Police Institute of Further Education spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the importance of communication and negotiation in handling demonstrations, the need for officers and commanders to have expertise and experience, and the benefits of establishing full-time public order policing units.

FEATURE: With the cyber threat growing continuously and becoming increasingly aggressive, law enforcement and public authorities will need to raise their investment and expertise in tackling cyber criminals; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the latest funding available from the EU to support improvements in digital investigation tools, techniques, and technologies.

ANALYSIS: With police budgets under pressure as countries around the world face the prospect of recession, and the worsening economic situation likely to drive an increase in crime, the relationship between policing and the private sector will be more important than ever; Policing Insight’s Michael Hardiman, a former economist with Australia’s Victoria Police, looks at the challenges posed by the economic pressures, and opportunities arising from them.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this week’s workshop on the use and abuse of technology in relation to human trafficking, Temporary Chief Inspector Mark O’Donoghue, who helped to create and deliver human trafficking training to police in Vietnam, spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the importance of international collaboration, tackling upstream crime to prevent downstream harm, and the UK’s role in sharing tech investigation expertise.

FEATURE: With an increasing array of contact channels and growing complexity of calls, emergency service control rooms are facing a “data tsunami”; the solution, says David Jackson, Director of Business Engagement at the Police Digital Service, is the increased use of technology to identify relevant and useful data, and to monitor the impact of potentially traumatic contact on call handlers, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr-Munro reports.

INTERVIEW: With a career combining operational policing and complex investigation with academia, Dr Tracey Green recently took up her post as CEO of the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency with greater insight than most into the demands facing law enforcement; she spoke to Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter about the Agency’s work on immediate and long-term policing challenges, the importance of sharing good practice, and the benefits of collaboration between police and academics.

INNOVATION: The Government is currently piloting an algorithmic transparency standard across the public sector, with the aim of improving openness and public trust in the use of technology; a new research study has highlighted the potential benefits for policing of adhering to the standard, including greater public confidence, the sharing of best practice and reduced costs, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: As the ‘big four’ social media companies continue to successfully tighten up the identification and removal of harmful terrorist content, delegates at the recent Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) discussed how extremist organisations and those intent on violence are looking for alternative ‘low-tech’ online routes to broadcast their message, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop on tackling violence against women and girls, and the lessons learned from Operation Soteria Bluestone, workshop facilitator Parm Sandhu (a former Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent who specialised in VAWG) talked to Policing Insight about improving the sharing of best practice, the need to identify cost-neutral measures, and the internal police cultures that still need to be overcome.

INNOVATION: A start-up project pioneered by four UK universities is using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify patterns of tech-facilitated coercive control sent by perpetrators through text messages; researchers believe the project, which recently received a £115,000 funding boost from the Home Office, could develop an AI tool that will encourage more victims of domestic abuse and coercive control to come forward, reports Policing Insight’s Keith Potter.

FEATURE: Technological advances in extracting valuable knowledge and information from Big Data could deliver significant benefits for the security and safety of smart cities and their residents; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores a new European research and innovation project that is looking to maximise those benefits for all stakeholders, including policing.

OPINION: In the same month that Lord Geidt resigned as ‘ethics adviser’ to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Government also published its response to proposals for the reform of data protection laws, advocating a seemingly light touch on the governance and scrutiny of the police use of technology; Dr Marion Oswald, Chair of the West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee, believes the two topics are linked by the importance of accountability and standards.

FEATURE: With the scale of child sexual abuse in the UK reaching record levels, and offenders using encryption and other technology tools to carry out increasingly severe and abhorrent abuse, National Crime Agency Deputy Director Sarah Blight has urged law enforcement, government, industry and other stakeholders to develop a ‘whole of system response’ to the threat, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: Despite the rapidly increasing use of technology in law enforcement intelligence gathering, humans continue to play a vital role in assessing, rationalising and contextualising data sources, based on their experience and expertise; and while officers may be susceptible to a degree of cognitive bias, digital methods can amplify those biases or trigger new ones, explains Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth.

OPINION: This week’s annual conference of the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region (PIER) supported by media partner Policing Insight, focuses on instigating change in the fight against child sexual abuse; ahead of the start of the two-day event, PIER Director Professor Samantha Lundrigan discusses the crucial importance of applied research in the field of public protection, and the positive change that is coming from these partnerships.

FEATURE: At last month’s Police Digital Summit in the UK, a panel of police, tech specialists and criminal justice stakeholders discussed how technology could help to meet the challenges of rape and serious sexual offences, and violence against women and girls; techUK’s Georgie Henley, who chaired the panel, highlights some of the key points from the discussion, and the collaborative approaches that can ensure improved responses in the future.

ANALYSIS: The recent horrific mass shootings in the US have once again highlighted how social media and online platforms are used to broadcast terrorists’ aims and actions; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at ongoing European efforts to target online terrorist content, including this month’s Terrorism and Social Media Conference in Swansea.

FEATURE: A new €7m European Commission research and innovation initiative has been launched to improve crime scene investigations relating to the transfer, persistence and background abundance of trace evidence, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores some of the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid development of new technology in the police and law enforcement intelligence field, and how a pan-EU project could help agencies and providers maximise the potential benefits of emerging trends and capabilities.

FEATURE: With funding increases partially ringfenced for recruitment, more budgetary pressure is on the horizon for UK policing; Neil Amos and Richard Davis of PA Consulting spoke to a panel of police and crime commissioners and former and serving police leaders to discuss what could be done to build better partnerships with the private sector, and drive efficiencies and improved services.

ANALYSIS: As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the lessons that need to be learned in relation to protecting public spaces from terror attack, and the important balance between community security and the rights of individual citizens.