Upcoming event – Improving police responses to domestic abuse with AI
Exploring opportunities to improve police responses to domestic abuse with Artificial Intelligence: Aligning with the NPCC’s Digital Strategy
Online, Wednesday 2 September 2026, 4 – 5 pm
To register: Exploring opportunities webinar
Presenters: Dr Les Humphreys, University of Lancashire and Dr Darren Cook, City St George’s University of London
Efforts to develop intelligence led policing are ongoing and will continue apace in line with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Digital Strategy for 2025-2030. To implement this strategy, Police chiefs are calling for huge investment from the government to increase science and technology capabilities. This strategy has the potential to make significant improvements to police responses to domestic abuse, in part by better utilising the masses of unstructured (i.e., textual) data routinely collected by the police but rarely analysed. Effective implementation of the digital strategy requires understanding police analysts’ current abilities to meet the proposed demands, and an appreciation of what developments are needed and feasible.
To address these questions, we conducted a survey of police analysts, asking questions reflecting their current knowledge of modern AI tools, as well as their capacity and attitude towards potential upskilling. We received responses from 159 analysts (81% of whom were from UK police forces). We present results from the survey. Highlighting the potential benefits of improved data analytic capabilities within policing, we present examples of how AI and related technologies can be used to address core data analysis problems related to domestic abuse. We conclude by discussing the implications that our research has for ensuring police analysts are well positioned to effectively use the large amounts of text data they hold for better responses to domestic abuse.
For any queries, contact connectcentre@lancashire.ac.uk
Co-organisers:
Photograph from Adobe Stock subscription
