The government should introduce a legislative framework so that police forces can use technology such as artificial intelligence and live facial recognition within defined and agreed law, the Met Commissioner has said.

In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, Dame Cressida Dick revealed that the Met is already looking to use AI to examine high risk and threating phone calls, as a translation tool for seized data in a foreign language and in its recruitment processes.

“We are already using data and tools that apply rules-based algorithms to augment and speed up decision-making,” she said.

“For example, there are now over 300 languages spoken in London so we are exploring machine translation tools to translate and triage seized media in a foreign language. We are looking into speech analytics software to help identify high harm, high risk or threat calls to the police. We are beginning to use virtual and augmented reality to improve officer decision-making, empathy and understanding as well as community engagement."

During recruitment, information is tailored for candidates using programmatic AI, so they can engage with chatbots. This year, the Met’s recruitment partner SSCL are likely to introduce AI across many of the recruitment processes, she said.

She told delegates that the Met’s trials of LFR resulted in the arrest of eight wanted individuals. “Without LFR, those eight individuals who were wanted for having caused harm would probably not have been arrested” she said.

The Commissioner said that the public would expect the police to use the same technology that they use every day in order to improve its performance in relation to policing.

“What I would propose therefore is that the best way to ensure that the police use new and emerging tech in a way that has the country’s support is for the Government to bring in an enabling legislative framework that is debated through Parliament, consulted on in public, and which will outline the boundaries for how police should or should not use tech.

“I welcome therefore the Government’s commitment to empower the police to safely use new technologies like biometrics, AI and the use of DNA within a strict legal framework. We are a law enforcement organisation, it is our duty to uphold the law, give us the law and we’ll work within it.”