Thinking About Policing
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Topic
Data, algorithms and artificial intelligence in operational policing.
6 articles · All topics →
Compare Guardian police headlines with public confidence data, inspect the method and understand why the two trends cannot establish causation.
Alex Murray spent a career investigating murders and running counter-terrorism operations, then built the institution that asked British policing a harder question: does any of this actually work? A profile of the founder of the Society of Evidence-Based Policing.
A practical approval checklist for police leaders: test accuracy, check data handling, assign accountability and make human oversight work.
In June 2026 the government launched PoliceAI, a national centre to develop and scale artificial intelligence across the 43 forces of England and Wales. This is a working guide for leaders — what the institution is, the platforms underneath it, and the questions worth asking before any of it reaches your force. Built to grow as the picture does.
Former Metropolitan Police officer Jerry Ratcliffe helped turn intelligence-led policing into a practical model: interpret the criminal environment, influence decisions and test whether targeted action changes harm.
Every image and video in this article is fictional and AI-generated for illustration. John Smith, Margaret Doyle and Wessex Police do not exist, and no real person or event is depicted. A short case study in how cheaply CCTV can now be faked — and what an investigator has to do to keep a manipulated clip out of the file.
