Policing and AI

The AI revolution is progressing very rapidly and is likely to transform society in ways that we cannot yet fully imagine. AI presents significant opportunities for the public sector to achieve a step-change in operational efficiency. Within the field of policing and law enforcement in the UK, numerous pilots, trials, experiments and applications of AI are already underway, including for automating transcription of audio recordings, analysing video recordings, predicting crime hotspots, report writing, and optimising resource allocation. 

The deployment of AI does however bring a host of challenges, which are particularly pronounced in the field of policing given the critically of the endeavour. Moreover, criminal use of AI tools poses further challenges to policing in being able to respond to those new criminal capabilities. In seeking to harness AI’s ever-increasing powers to enhance existing service provision and tackle emerging new threats, policing is faced with the need to ensure AI tools are accurate and efficient, but also that they meet the standards expected in terms of their implications for TIPSS - public trust, individuals’ identities, privacy, public safety, and security.

This Community of Interest will bring together academic experts and practitioners to identify specific issues of importance, explore their TIPSS implications, and consider how we might best address the challenges raised.