A Derbyshire police officer has been removed from frontline duties and is under criminal investigation over allegations of using artificial intelligence to generate evidence – the first known case of its kind in the UK.
The unidentified officer is being investigated for perverting the course of justice after the “alleged use of AI systems … to create evidential material in a number of cases”, Derbyshire police said in a statement to the Financial Times. The force is working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service “in relation to any potentially impacted cases”.
“Derbyshire police officer removed from duties and investigated for using AI to create evidence, a UK first.”
The investigation is “in its early stages”, the force added, and “no further details are available”. No arrests have been made, and the officer’s role and the exact nature of the suspected misconduct have not been disclosed.
A CPS spokesperson told the Guardian: “We are working with Derbyshire police as it conducts enquiries into the alleged use of artificial intelligence by an officer. We are engaging with defence teams and the courts in appropriate cases. As police enquiries continue, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
The case comes after Alex Murray, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Police AI centre, revealed he had told a number of police forces to stop using AI systems to prepare court statements and other tasks because they may not be reliable enough.
In April, the Metropolitan police launched investigations into hundreds of officers after deploying an AI tool built by the US tech company Palantir to root out rogue officers. The software was used over a week, surveilling staff using data the force already had, unearthing rule-breaking from work-from-home violations to suspected corruption and criminal allegations including rape. As a result, three officers were arrested for offences.