How cold cases could be solved in 30 hours instead of 80 years thanks to AI
Some of the most notorious unsolved crimes in Britain could finally be cracked with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), a police chief has said.
Technology developed in Australia is being used to examine cold cases in the UK, identifying fresh leads and investigative opportunities.
Using the latest cutting-edge AI systems, computers can quickly sift through vast amounts of evidence – and spot clues and potential new avenues that may have previously been missed.
Detectives in Avon and Somerset , using a system called Soze, managed to complete a review of all the evidential material in 27 complex cases in the space of just 30 hours – something they estimated would have taken 81 years to do manually.
The force is now carrying out further tests with the system with a view to it being rolled out across other forces.
Gavin Stephens, the chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said the potential benefits to policing from such AI technology were enormous.
He said: "I can imagine from my experience this sort of thing being hugely useful for cold case reviews.
"You may have a cold case that looks impossible because of the amount of material there and if there is a system like this that can just ingest it and give you an assessment of it then I can see that being really helpful."
Subtle clues
It is one of several AI applications being looked at by UK policing in a bid to integrate technology with more traditional crime-fighting tools.
West Midlands Police have introduced an AI system to support staff who answer calls to the 101 non-emergency number.
The system is intended to help with callers reporting matters such as lost property and abandoned vehicles, freeing up staff to deal with more serious issues.
However, it has also been designed to flag subtle clues in a caller's voice indicating vulnerability, such as in cases of domestic abuse , that may have been missed by a human call handler.
Other forces are making use of AI tools to assist with the time-consuming job of redacting sensitive evidence, which if done manually can consume a large amount of an officer's time.
Mr Stephens said it was vital that police made the best use of emerging science and technology but stressed it was equally important that innovations were adopted across the country rather than just by individual forces.
"We are not short of innovation and ideas but what we have not been great at in the past has been getting them widely adopted for everyone to use," he said.
"We want to make the best of technology in order to help us bring criminals to justice and give a better service to victims but we are also acutely aware that there can be a fear or concern about some of the technologies we adopt, so it is really important we have good quality discussions and debate about how things are implemented and adopted."
