Artificial Intelligence

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: AI is transforming the way police forces vet applicants by tackling the vast scale of social media data. In this Q&A, Fivecast’s Joseph Miller explains how open-source intelligence tools are reshaping vetting, making it faster, smarter, and more accurate than ever before.

OPINION: With the use of predictive policing driven by artificial intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly prevalent, University of Virginia Postdoctoral Researcher Maria Lungu argues that to address fears of overreach, bias, and a range of ethical concerns, government generally and law enforcement in particular should ensure that all data-driven tools are grounded in democratic values of due process, transparency and accountability.

FEATURE: This year’s Cityforum Transforming Police Public Contact event, supported by Policing Insight as media partner, saw experts from across the sector discuss key issues around contact management; in this article – a shortened version of the full report from the event – Dr Rick Muir, Policing Advisor to the Home Secretary, looks at some of the debates from the day, including the strategic challenges, potential quick wins, and how the discussion has broadened to consider ways police-public interaction can improve trust and confidence.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Law enforcement is taking advantage of the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs.) When combined with intelligence data in the knowledge graphs, the police can query the data using natural language and get accurate, reliable answers due to the nature of graph technology.

FEATURE: A new report into artificial intelligence (AI) and online crime, published by the Alan Turing Institute, has warned that UK policing needs to “get serious” about the threat posed by AI or risk a rapidly escalating problem, with calls for a new taskforce to be based in the National Crime Agency to work with national security and industry partners to tackle the threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new survey of more than 2,100 digital forensic examiners, investigators, analysts and agency managers from 97 countries highlights both the overwhelming levels of data involved in criminal investigations, and the “outdated methods” still in place across law enforcement which are creating “bottlenecks and barriers” to the greater use of artificial intelligence in tackling those investigations, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With the three-year European PERIVALLON initiative – which aims to build a better intelligence picture of organised environmental crime, and develop tools and solutions to combat it – drawing to a close later this year, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of the project so far, and what more needs to be done by law enforcement and others to tackle the problem.

INNOVATION: With a wide range of potential applications for artificial intelligence (AI) in the law enforcement arena, Fernando Escudero, Tech Analyst at Spanish AI specialists ISID, takes a look at some of the most effective and beneficial current and potential police uses of the new technology.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, Chief Philip Lukens looks at the potential of agentic software engineering which, by empowering software with autonomous decision-making capabilities, can offers huge possibilities in analzying data and predicting crime patterns, but also raises concerns around accountability, bias, privacy, and the possible lack of human oversight.

FEATURE: A new report from the Vulnerability Knowledge Practice Programme analysing police-recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) highlights the scale of the crime, gaps in reporting, and threats that could contribute to further increases in CSAE, as well as legislation and other measures that could improve the police response, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores the potential offered by intelligent holographic surveying, which combines AI, augmented reality and holographic imaging to create 3D images that can help police recreate crime and accident scenes, assist in search and rescue operations, and simulate scenarios for tactical planning and emergency response.

FEATURE: Last month the Spanish Council of Ministers adopted draft legislation that could introduce punitive fines for tech companies who fail to correctly label artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, in a bid to tackle ‘deepfakes’; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the aims of the bill, as well as the impact more widely of the European Union’s AI Act, which could have significant implications both for tech companies and for the police use of AI.

INNOVATION: The continuing development of multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the last in the recent series of Policing Tech Forum webinars produced by PolicingTV, Content Guru Business Development Director Shub Naha, Humberside Police Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scot Dunn, and David Jackson from the NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme, explored the opportunities for AI to improve service delivery as well as staff and officer wellbeing, but not to replace humans in the process.

INNOVATION: With increasing recognition of the opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly reduce the time and costs associated with some policing activities, the push for wider use of such technology has never been greater; in the last in a series of articles on AI in policing, Matt Palmer, Product Director, Public Safety from NEC Software Solutions, explores the key issues around ensuring the technology is used ethically and transparently.

INNOVATION: Following on from the recent Beyond Bureaucracy conference on artificial intelligence (AI) in the criminal justice system (CJS), independent policing and technology expert Giles Herdale explores some of the main opportunities and challenges facing police and the CJS in the successful development, adoption and implementation of effective AI technologies.

ANALYSIS: The latest Europol Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA), published this month, highlights the changing face of organised crime, and emerging methods and tactics adopted by organised crime groups (OCGs) around the world; Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen looks at some of the key themes from the report, including the increasing use of technology by OCGs, the collaboration and co-operation between criminals, and how OCGs are operating on a business model.

INNOVATION: As forces increase contact channels to include digital and online routes, the likelihood of comms staff being exposed to harmful images has increased, says Rebecca Malpass, Digital Communications Development Senior for Derbyshire Constabulary; now a new AI-based image filter together with additional guidance for staff can help to protect individuals from being exposed to indecent images, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: With the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate online child sex abuse material (CSAM), a new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology has highlighted the potential of the new technology to be deployed in the fight against CSAM and to relieve some of the burden on human investigators – but also warns that many would-be AI solutions are still not fit for purpose, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology presents opportunities to support police officers in many aspects of their work, but only as a helpmate, never an equal; in the second in a series of three articles on AI in policing, Matt Palmer, Product Director, Public Safety from NEC Software Solutions, highlights the importance of setting clear boundaries in defining the role of AI in policing.

FEATURE: With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) making the technology both more available and easier to use, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at law enforcement efforts to tackle AI-generated online child sexual abuse material – including last month’s success of Operation Cumberland, involving European, UK, Australian and New Zealand forces – as well as EU steps to tackle other damaging AI-generated online content.

ANALYSIS: When it comes to research and services for victims of adolescent domestic abuse (ADA), those aged under 16 are often overlooked by policies that focus on the adult domestic abuse (DA) agenda; Gloucestershire Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint and City St George’s, University of London Senior Researcher Dr Ruth Weir spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about new efforts to identify the scale and nature of the problem, and encouraging police forces to use technology to extract ADA data.

FEATURE: Last month saw joint calls from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, College of Police and Counter-Terrorism Policing for UK policing to be given more freedom to share details around investigations that could help to quell the online misinformation fuelling violence and disorder; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the challenges around sharing of information, as well as the artificial intelligence tools that can help to tackle misinformation.

ANALYSIS: New laws proposed by the UK Government will be the first in the world to make it an offence to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material; Simon Bailey, Chair of the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI), and IPPPRI Director, Professor Sam Lundigran, explain why the new laws will be crucial in the fight against the growing scale of AI-generated online child abuse images.

FEATURE: Recognising the threat posed by terrorist content online (TCO), the European Commission first presented legislation to tackle the problem in 2018, with the EU TCO Regulations coming into force in June 2022; now the work of three projects – set up to help hosting service providers (HSPs) meet the risk to European security – has reached fruition, offering HSPs a wealth of guidelines, training tools and other resources, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.