Police priorities to be set as AI emerges as key to force’s future

Artificial intelligence, technological innovations and algorithms could form the core of Sussex’s policing as it adapts to a post-Covid world.

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, pictured, said social trends accelerated by the pandemic, allied with a need for efficiency, placed technology at the forefront of fighting crime.

“The pandemic will change the way we work, definitely,” said Mrs Bourne.

“It’s forced us to use technology quicker, it’s forced us into those areas faster than perhaps we would normally have done. But I’m a believer in looking for the silver linings and I think this will actually help us improve some of the methods police use.”

Next month, Mrs Bourne will announce her priorities for the next four years through the Sussex Police and Crime Plan, with ‘smarter policing’ at its core. Not only has the pandemic accelerated society’s reliance on technology, the economic fallout will demand greater efficiency as the purse strings tighten. Add to that the inevitable financial blow from Brexit and cost saving becomes even more vital.

An emerging force is the use of artificial intelligence, no longer confined to futuristic Hollywood blockbusters but very much already part of everyday life.

Tech companies use our data to target adverts, personalise our experiences and, more sinisterly, influence our beliefs.

Police forces across the country are already using AI, but the benefits to tackling crime must be weighed against intrusions into civil liberties.

Facial recognition software is used to help find suspects, fugitives and missing people. But how comfortable are the public with having their images and personal data stored in a database?

Crime statistics have long been used to identify hotspots, but police forces now have the technology to harvest huge amounts of historical data.

These figures can be placed into an algorithm to forecast where, when and what types of crime are likely to take place through a technique known as predictive policing.

The efficiency benefits are obvious, but using historical data risks cementing social biases which then influence policing for years to come.

Plus 2020 has already seen two high profile failures of ‘mutant algorithms’ through the GCSE results scandal and a recently rejected national planning policy. But in this case algorithms can be used to assess a case’s likelihood of being solved to help with resource allocation, and can even be used to determine a person’s risk of reoffending.

These more extreme uses of AI are some way off for Sussex, but Mrs Bourne said its rise in prominence was inevitable.

She argued so much of people’s data is already in the public domain through social media. “We are increasingly connected and it’s a really tricky area all round,” she said. “That’s why the public’s voice needs to be heard.”

AI would mostly be used for data collection and other ‘mundane’ tasks, said Mrs Bourne, allowing officers’ time to be better spent tackling crime and supporting victims.

Over the past 12 months an untraceable online chat room has also been created to support victims of domestic abuse and cyber-stalking, which increased by 76 per cent during the pandemic.

Victims of crime can also have virtual meetings with officers, rather than having to attend in person. Technological innovations also stretch to the force’s green credentials, with LED lights cutting energy use and saving thousands of pounds per year and research underway into the use of hydrogen vehicles.

Technology aside, Mrs Bourne said visible presence and boots on the ground was still at the centre of policing.

Sussex Police recruited 129 new officers in 2020 through the Government’s uplift programme which aims to put 20,000 officers back on the streets by 2023.

A further 250 will also be recruited in Sussex over four years, funded by a rise in the police precept, and 100 new PCSOs meant PCSO staff numbers returned to preausterity levels.

Imminent central funding announcements will reveal whether recruitment can continue at a similar pace.

Mrs Bourne also pointed to the creation of a Rural Crime Team – the largest in the South East – and the recruitment of new Chief Constable Jo Shiner, who she said had ‘really got a grip’ on the force.

Several Tactical Enforcement Units have also been created in the past year, targeting organised crime and higher profile criminals. A Sussex-wide enforcement unit is set to be introduced in the new year.

Theover-archingprioritiesfor the next four years will become clearer on the publication of the Police and Crime Plan on January 29.