Using AI in policing in Sussex has risks

Dave McLaren shared his views during a meeting with Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne on Friday (October 20).

Pointing out that some forces ‘have had their fingers burnt a little bit by racing ahead and looking at how they might use AI’, DCC McLaren said they had to be ‘mindful of the risks that come with it’.

He added: “There are risks for policing around about AI in terms of how we use it.

“When you read a lot about AI, it talks about the ability to recognise patterns, problem solving [and] making decisions.

“I don’t think in policing we are anywhere near ready for Artificial Intelligence to make decisions for us.”

While describing AI as ‘exciting’ and ‘presenting lots of opportunities’ for the future, DCC McLaren acknowledged that it was currently only used in a small number of cases.

A pilot scheme is being carried out, running CCTV images of, for example, shoplifters against the national database.

Even if there is a hit, though, it still falls to an officer to check the information and decide what to do next.

DCC McLaren said: “I think we would like to get to a place [where AI] really helps us with our efficiency and effectiveness – almost like an intelligence product that simplifies some of the work that we do either as leaders or in analysing situations.”

One such product which has gone down well with the force is Power BI – a collection of software services and apps that turn unrelated data sources into coherent information.

When asked how staff and officers felt about the use of AI, DCC McLaren smiled and said: “Whenever you bring anything new in to policing, it’s always quite a challenge when it brings about different ways of working.”

Pointing to how Power BI had made life easier for officers, he added: “It allows them to be more efficient in their work. It allows them to be more focussed on the areas that they need to be focussed in on.

“Anybody who’s a decision maker in any walk of life, never mind just policing, the better the information you have, the better decisions you make – so why would we not embrace it?”