England and Wales: Growing gap between power and regulation of police AI - Statewatch
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England and Wales: Growing gap between power and regulation of police AI
Police and legal agencies in England and Wales are actively using at least 27 AI technologies, according to an academic study.
Date
5 August 2026
Author
Chris Jones
Topics
Snooping and surveillance
Region
United Kingdom (UK)
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Police and legal agencies in England and Wales are actively using at least 27 AI technologies, according to an academic study.
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An academic project has found that at least 27 artificial intelligence (AI) tools are in active use by English and Welsh police forces and agencies dealing with prosecution, imprisonment and probation.A further 27 have been tested in trials and more than a dozen others have been the subject of unspecified “experiments” or used in “unknown” ways..
The 70 uses of AI in the criminal justice system mapped by the Probable Futures project range from emergency call handling and evidence assessment, to crime ‘prediction’ and automated analysis of video footage.
Of the tools documented, 41 can be used for analysis, 19 are capable of synthesis (“combines inputs to enrich or predict”) and 28 can be used for generation (“creates new content from prompts or inputs”). A single tool may have more than one capability.
A report published by the project in June warns of “an increasing gap between technological capability and the conditions required for its legitimate, reliable, and responsible use.”
Police acquire technology without “understanding the capabilities”
There is no specific legal basis governing police use of AI technologies in England and Wales.1 Police forces are acquiring powerful new technologies “without fully understanding the capabilities… and the implications,” according to William Webster, the government official responsible for oversight of biometric and surveillance technologies.
Despite the existence of a “national decision making model” for buying new technology, Webster said his office has found “no evidence” of policing forces following it.
The government is aiming to introduce centralised technology procurement for the police, which could improve transparency and public oversight. Plans for controlling the actual use of those technologies are more limited.
Technology outpacing the law
Later this year, the government is due to introduce legislation to govern the police use of facial recognition technology.
However, the data collected by Probable Futures shows facial recognition is merely the tip of a much larger iceberg that already includes tools used for extremely sensitive aspects of police work.
Dr Temitope Lawal, a Research Fellow at Northumbria University and member of the Probable Futures project, told Statewatch that some AI tools are “delivering genuine benefits.” However, he also warned that tools for “shaping evidence and/or case progression are being introduced through fragmented approaches, while the legal and governance frameworks have not developed at the same pace.”
Police AI tools
Lincolnshire Police are using a tool called CESIUM, a “cloud-based IT solution that utilises Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to run over force systems to readily identify and flag risk of Child Exploitation.”
Avon and Somerset Police use Qlik Sense, which the force says is “primarily used as a visualisation tool to monitor demand, trends and harm.” Probable Futures say it is used for risk prediction – that is, to calculate the risk someone will commit a criminal offence or someone will become a victim of an offence.
There appears to be significant enthusiasm for ‘predictive’ technology at Avon and Somerset Police, as there is at other forces in the UK and across Europe. A recent investigation published by Wired found many of the tools tested and deployed by Avon and Somerset have been riddled with errors.
West Yorkshire Police are also using ‘predictive’ technology, in the form of a tool called Corvus IOM Case. This produces “an individualised score aimed at providing an indication of an individual’s likelihood to reoffend,” according to Probable Futures.
Police are also using systems to ‘predict’ burglaries and the likelihood of “investigative success for minor, non-domestic assault and public order offences,” amongst many others.
The risks of generative AI
Dr Evdoxia Taka, a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow who works with the Probable Futures project, emphasised the police’s growing use of generative AI systems.2
Of the dozens of tools mapped, 40% use generative AI “to perform at least one task, such as document summarisation,” Taka told Statewatch. These systems could “inadvertently add content to a witness statement, causing an otherwise weak case to appear stronger,” she warned.
“This could lead to a charging decision where the...