LONDON - Police in England and Wales in January introduced a chatbot to help handle non-emergency calls, allowing officers to deal with emergencies faster.
The use of a chatbot named Bobbi is part of an effort to embrace technology. Other AI (artificial intelligence) technology, including live facial recognition, will be introduced in the biggest change in policing for decades announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
The changes were revealed in the British government's White Paper on police reform, which proposes the creation of a "British FBI" for England and Wales called the National Police Service and a reduction in the number of police forces.
Mahmood announced £115m would be spent on the technology, overseen by a national centre known as Police.AI.
The goal is to free officers from time-consuming tasks such as creating and editing files before trials and analyzing video from CCTV, doorbells, and body cameras.
According to statistics, the use of AI to complete these tasks will save six million police working hours each year, equivalent to 3,000 full-time officers.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said the chatbot would "create efficiency in sorting out non-urgent online questions" and would be asked to decide whether a 111 call was directed to an officer, a call operator, or another emergency service.
Minister Mahmood said "criminals are operating in increasingly sophisticated ways", but "some police still fight crime with analog methods."
"We will launch cutting-edge technology to put more officers on the streets and put rapists and murderers behind bars," he explained, as reported by The National (10/3).
It is known that the British Police have struggled with the volume of calls. The London Metropolitan Police recently revealed that only 15 percent of the 999 calls made were actual emergencies.
In the past year, The Met's call operator has been contacted by people frustrated that delivery drivers aren't coming, someone who has a spider in his room, and others whose dogs don't come home.
Previously, two British police forces - Thames Valley and Hampshire and Isle of Wight - adopted the AI chatbot system Bobbi last year.
For generations, police officers were referred to as "bobbies" after Robert Peel, a reforming Conservative politician who founded The Met in the late 1820s.
This pilot system answers frequently asked questions, not emergency questions, and helps reduce the pressure on call takers.
Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes, did not agree that AI would end the role of patrol officers on the streets, as represented by PC George Dixon, the main character in the BBC TV drama "Dixon of Dock Green" which aired for 21 years from 1955.
"The difference for "Dixon of Dock Green" after this reform is that, in his hands, there will be face recognition technology controlled by officers and AI, which directs him to prioritize work in his area," he explained.
It is known that the National Police Service will handle serious crimes, combining the National Crime Agency, the National Counter Terrorism Police, the National Police Air Service, and the existing National Highway Police into one organization.
Work to establish the service will begin this year and is believed to be completed by the next parliament.
A review to determine how many police forces in England and Wales will be cut will be reported back this summer, with some mergers expected to take place by the next general election.
For comparison, autonomous regional governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have a single police force.
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