AI needs to be injected into police force ‘like heroin into bloodstream’, says leading officer

Andy Marsh, from the College of Policing, said he hopes AI can make the task of preparing prosecution case files a ‘problem of the past’ in just two years

Andy Marsh (Sky News)

Artificial intelligence needs to be injected into police forces “like heroin into the bloodstream” to ease the paperwork burden for officers, a leading officer has said.

Andy Marsh, the chief executive officer of the College of Policing, revealed he hopes the technology can make the task of preparing prosecution case files a “problem of the past” in two years.

During a panel discussion at Police Superintendents’ Association conference, he revealed AI is already under trial to “effectively automate” police paperwork.

He called for forces to rapidly embrace the innovation to help ease pressures created by preparing statements, crime reports and prosecution files.

Marsh, a former chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “Case files: possibly the most bureaucratic, complex and troublesome work that your teams are responsible for, riddled with error and disappointment.

“The technology currently exists, I’ve seen it, it’s under trial to effectively automate the whole thing.

Head of the College of Policing Andy Marsh (Ben Birchall/PA) (PA Archive)

“So through an interaction, AI could write a statement, do a risk assessment, do a crime report, do a handover network which then needs to be signed off by humans who check it’s correct.

“But it can absorb all the digital and written data and create a prosecution file. I would like to make prosecution files a problem of the past in two years.”

He said the technological advancements need to be rapidly injected into policing.

“But we won’t achieve this pace of change, we won’t exploit this sense of speed unless we’ve got a centre that is more capably resourced to get on with the job,” he added.

“These innovations are groundbreaking; they’re going to change the world, and they need to be injected like heroin into the bloodstream into policing much more quickly than we have done in the past.”

His comments come as the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), Nick Smart, is expected to hit out at years of underinvestment in law enforcement in a speech today at the police chiefs annual conference.

He will tell policing minister Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE that forces are “taken for granted” as he questions where policing sits among national priorities.