The UK Police use AI to spot Future Criminals

In an attempt to utilize the revolutionary Artificial Intelligence for solving real-world issues, the UK police are using AI technology to identify the criminals who could commit a higher level of crime in the future. The police department is using Machine learning algorithm to analyses the probable offender from the database of 2000,000 criminals who committed low-level crime in the past. The system is designed to spot those criminals who are likely to use more lethal mediums for ‘High Crime’ through the help of AI. The UK police department has already used this analytic on a pilot level and working to implement this system nationwide.

This new system based on AI is designed to inform the Law enforcement agency about the offender who requires a supportive intervention such as job training, mental health support, and treatment of substance abuse. It will increase the probability of curbing the crime before it takes place. Also, it will help the government and police department to get an insight into the criminal behavior of the low-level offenders. 

According to the report published in The Sunday Telegraph, the project leader Superintendent Nick Dale, said. “The use of advanced analytics in policing gives the potential for us to provide timely interventions to prevent criminalizing people and prevent people coming to harm, but it is quite rightly subject to rigorous and transparent scrutiny”

The West Midlands Police department has already developed the risk scoring to assess the likelihood of an offender to indulge in a higher level of crime again. This agency has invested around pound 9.5 Million to develop and refine this system. The system is expected to be rolled out throughout the country after the successful completion of its testing.

Reports raised concerns over the use of AI by Police

An audit done by Royal United Service Institute think tank, raised several concerns over the use of AI-based analytics by British police. The report published by this institute highlighted the major concerns pertaining to legal and ethical factors in the use of data analytics by the police. In order to bring the implementation of an AI-based system in policing, the think tank asked for an urgent need for national guidance. Furthermore, the report recommended an integrated impact assessment, discrimination risk, effectiveness, accuracy, and other such legal requirement need to be conducted prior to the deployment of this AI-based project.  

Although the requirement of manual intervention is important to ensure the accountability and credibility of the law enforcement agencies in identifying a criminal, the help of AI-based analytics could be a big help in figuring out the probable suspect. It can also help law enforcement agencies with understanding the underlying behavior of a first-time offender who is likely to indulge in violent criminal offenses in the future. The timely intervention by police in such cases could reduce a considerable number of crimes likely to take place in future.