Data Ethics in Policing
Overview
On Monday 5 October techUK’s Justice & Emergency Services Programme teamed up with the Tech & Innovation Programme to deliver an interactive workshop across industry and policing to focus on data ethics, what this looks like, what those challenges are across policing, and to provide an opportunity for industry and police to come together to problem-solve and share best practice.
We were delighted to welcome over 80 attendees to this workshop who took part in some excellent discussions across our breakout rooms with a number of policing representatives; which included Police ICT Company, NEP, Home Office, West Midlands Police, College of Policing, NCA and CDEI.
The Police are under acute pressure to use technology effectively in order to get ahead of the curve on criminal activity. This event aimed to address how technology is being utilised, how data is being shared and how police forces are better understanding the importance of gaining public trust in the use of information and technology to ensure accountability.
techUK works regularly with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and police technology organisations to promote dialogue, collaboration and improved mutual understanding. Current projects include InterOp-Pol Initiative and Data Quality Standards and, it has been identified that the area of digital and data ethics is of increasing profile and interest across policing.
Who did we hear from on the day?
- David Lewis, Deputy Chief Constable for Dorset Constabulary, NPCC Data Ethics Lead
- Christophe Prince, Director, Data & Identity, UK Home Office
If you are interested in hearing more about what David or Christophe discussed, please reach out to Georgie.
- Mark Goossens, Client Director, Home Office & Police for IBM
Working with companies that have a culture of openness, fairness and trust, where these values are reflected in their products and solutions (https://www.ibm.com/blogs/policy/trust-principles/). It was highlighted that AI doesn't exist to replace human thinking, it augments it when there's too much data to handle. (https://www.ibm.com/watson/assets/duo/pdf/everydayethics.pdf)
Algorithms aren’t good at complexity, but are good at volume, so sifting through large amounts of data. More data is generally good, but data quality & provenance are essential. Also, better sharing of data & interoperability between systems, both public & private is required (https://interop-pol.uk/)
techUK run a working group looking at interoperability across policing. If this is something you would be interested in hearing more about, please reach out to Georgie.
Presentation slides can be found here
- Clare Elford, Managing Director for Clue Investigation Software
The police are dealing with a massive volume of data and they need tools to help otherwise things will be missed. "Whilst our users want tools to help them to automate as much work as possible, they also recognise the need for accountability".
The following was highlighted as important factors to be consider as automation and AI is provided:
- Organisations need to understand how the tools work
- Technology should not remove the human decision-making process
- Users must understand why they have the data they have
And so in response to this, suppliers should ensure their products are:
- Transparent
- Easy to use
- Promote good data management practice
- Be interoperable
- Make it clear to users why the data they are seeing is there.
Presentation slides can be found here
- Ian O'Gara, Digital Strategy Director for Accenture
- Tom McNeil, Strategic Advisor to West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner
West Midlands Police and the PCC have established an ethics oversight process that has been recognised as excellent practice by a range of government bodies, universities and think tanks. If you are interested in hearing more about this, please reach out to Georgie.
What were the discussions in our breakout rooms?
Governance – What does that look like?
Chair: Nick Gargan, Gargan Consulting | Vice-Chair DCC David Lewis
If you are interested in hearing more about what was discussed in this breakout room, please reach out to Georgie.
Building a body of guidance – Should there be a universal framework that is used by law enforcement?
Chair: Robert Leach, R Leach Consulting | Vice-Chair: Christine Elliott, College of Policing
If you are interested in hearing more about what was discussed in this breakout room, please reach out to Georgie.
Ethical considerations in the use and sharing of data - particularly between the private and public sectors and the re-use of data for an investigative purpose
Chair: Hugo Rosemont, AWS | Vice-Chair: Giles Herdale, Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Directorate, National Crime Agency
Questions posed to the group included:
What are the key legal and ethical considerations to bear in mind around the use and sharing of data for policing purposes? Are these policing purposes sufficiently clearly defined? Is it ethical NOT to share data if in so doing serious harm or criminality could be prevented? What key change(s) could be made to enable information sharing in an ethical manner? (e.g. any specific ways to improve public-private cooperation?)
If you are interested in hearing more about what was discussed in this breakout room, please reach out to Georgie.
Next Steps
A number of next steps were highlighted both based on the excellent discussions in our breakout rooms and also from our speakers. techUK runs a Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Management committee, and we will ensure output is fed into this management committee for next steps.
techUK’s Justice & Emergency Services Programme have established excellent relationships with local forces, but also the Home Office and NPCC Data Ethics Lead, and it is important this work continues and we work together to move this agenda forward. Communication and feedback is key, and we will continue to provide updates to members and stakeholders with regards to progress, next steps and future engagement events.
techUK’s Justice & Emergency Services Programme facilitates an interoperability for policing working group (InterOp-Pol). It is clear much of the work across data quality and data standards under the banner of interoperability, also should include work across ethics. It is important to tie these strands together.
Moving forward, techUK will continue to work with members and stakeholders, and will look to produce a paper outlining recommendations, future engagement opportunities, progress and challenges. This paper will also include use-cases from techUK membership. If members have any use-cases they would like to contribute, please reach out to Georgie or Katherine.
Thank you to all those who attended, presented and took part in our breakout room discussions. It was an excellent session and we couldn't have achieved the results that we did without your engagement on the day and your continued support for techUK's work in this area. Any questions, please reach out to Georgie or Katherine.