UK Police.AI: £115m national AI centre aims to return six million hours to frontline policing

The Home Office’s policing white paper has launched Police.AI, a national centre tasked with identifying, testing and scaling AI tools across all 43 forces in England and Wales. Backed by £115 million over three years, the initiative will prioritise CCTV analysis, disclosure automation, crime recording and facial recognition. Analysts from Sopra Steria warn that data quality and procurement reform must precede tool deployment to avoid replicating earlier costly programme failures.