Should the police ban the use of AI?

0:00West Midlands police tried to justify a ban on fans from an Israeli football club using duff information provided by artificial intelligence. The chief constable later retired, so why are police forces across the country still using AI?

0:21Protests kicked off outside Villa Park in Birmingham last November. Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv were in town to play Aston Villa, but their fans were not. They'd been banned from attending by West Midlands police, and that was a decision that would ultimately cost the chief constable his job. At the heart of it all, information provided by AI that simply wasn't true. We only uncovered bit by bit how they reached this decision. Some documents started to be leaked and one of them was an intelligence document by West Midlands Police, within it a previous Maccabi match in England. But the game didn't exist.

1:00Sorry, the game didn't exist. What do you mean? It had never been played. West Mid's police have now stopped using the Microsoft co-pilot AI tool, which makes this next bit all the more striking. Because forces up and down the country are still using the same technology. So, why? Our sports correspondent, Rob Harris, has been digging into the story. Rob, can you just take us back to that match last November? Well, Aston Villa were drawn in late August to play Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League. And it was very clear from the moment the draw was made in Monaco that this would be politically contentious.

1:39There are calls for Israeli teams still to be banned from European competitions over the war in Gaza. In the area around Villa Park, a very large Muslim population, a lot of pro-Palestinian activism, those in the local community, some of the politicians believing Israeli teams should be banned, shouldn't have been allowed to play that match. And this was playing on the minds of West Midlands police. they decided in mid-October to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans completely from attending that match. It was a decision condemned by Keir Starmer and the rest of his government. It was a decision taken by the Birmingham City Council's Safety Advisory Group, but on the recommendation of West Midlands Police and a lot of attention on where they'll get in their evidence from to justify their ban, who was putting pressure on them to decide to ban the fans.

2:25They'd focused a lot on what happened in Amsterdam in 2024 when Maccabi played against Ajax. And there was unrest in the streets in the days before the game, after the game. A lot of it is contested. We know that there are attacks by locals on the Maccabi fans led to five convictions. We also know that some Maccabi hooligans themselves were involved in unrest, chanting anti-Palestinian slogans, ripping down at least one Palestinian flag as well. But ultimately, it was the involvement of the boogeyman of our age, artificial intelligence, that did for the Chief Constable of West Midlands. Why? So we'd all been trying to discover how did they reach this decision.

3:07Police wouldn't speak to us publicly in the weeks building up to it directly afterwards to explain the decision. So we only uncovered bit by bit how they reached this decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. And it led to them appearing in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee not once, but twice, because they provided misleading evidence and some documents started to be leaked. And one of them was an intelligence document from late October, which was produced by West Midlands Police to effectively justify why they'd imposed this ban. and within it, there was a previous Maccabi match in England against West Ham in 2023 that they cited, but the game didn't exist.

3:45Sorry, the game didn't exist. What do you mean? It had never been played. So this was, what, one of these, they call them hallucinations when it comes to artificial intelligence. A phantom match. And it's interesting because, more broadly, we wouldn't necessarily fact-check everything in a police document, but it shows that even if you list a football match in there, that we should have gone over to check, did that game actually take place? I mean, this all ended pretty badly for West Midlands Police, didn't it? I mean, the Chief Constable ultimately having to go. Yes, early retirement he was forced into because, first of all, he insisted it wasn't AI, this was in December, then back in front of the committee in early January after being recalled over other misleading evidence to face questions and apologies had already been issued about not consulting the Jewish community locally when Craig Gilford, the Chief Constable, said that they had done.

4:34but they insisted it was a Google search. Only later did they admit that the reason that they mentioned this game against West Ham was because they'd used Microsoft Copilot. And then fast forward to the last week and we've had the report from the Home Affairs Select Committee into this whole controversy and they said they'd uncovered fresh evidence about the use of AI and this is central to a key part of the intelligence document. It was relating to how they formed intelligence about Maccabi's match in Amsterdam in 2024. I'd been in contact with Amsterdam police in mid-November and they'd said they didn't recognise some of the information that West Midlands had cited in their own documents.

5:14OK, so this kind of started you down the rabbit hole a little bit, didn't it? Because, of course, if West Mids are using co-pilot, other forces might be as well. What did you discover? Well, West Midlands police switched off co-pilot when it was discovered how it had been spewing out this false information. so it did get me thinking well what's the picture across the whole country and i asked every force and it threw up a completely disjointed approach to policing across the country you'd think with all the forces something as clear-cut as how do we use ai how is co-pilot used there'd be a clear policy because you'd want to police the same across the country and fairly i discovered at least 21 police forces across england are using co-pilot in some form for their officers other forces like like Police Scotland and Police Service in Northern Ireland, are not allowing it to be used.

6:05The policy hasn't been taken up by everyone else, with Greater Manchester Police, the second largest force in England, telling me that they promote the use of AI to speed up processes and ensure officers have more time to be on the streets rather than behind their desks. West Yorkshire Police, another big force, said that staff are provided with education and guidance how to use it responsibly. But obviously there is a difference in opinions. So what's wrong? What's problematic about police forces deciding on an individual basis how best or otherwise to use AI? Now, clearly it can speed up some administrative processes and some forms can help you find links.

6:44Now, this is the technical part and Microsoft talked to us about how they're constantly reviewing the technology. But companies will often have the corporate version of Microsoft Copilot, which can provide better quality of links. there is a free version called Co-Pilot Chat. And a lot of the forces told me they're using Co-Pilot Chat. And I asked Co-Pilot, are Maccabi Televiv fans hooligans? And there's now so much information out there, particularly in English from the reporting over the last few months. Now, the 365 Enterprise version... The kind of the corporate version. Yes. Said, short answer, no.

7:20It's not accurate or fair to label Maccabi Televiv fans as hooligans as a group. It did reference disorder, but said, Brandon, the fan base's hooligans is misleading. Some of the sources for that, ourselves at Sky News, BBC News, The Telegraph, an Israeli site, also Middle East Eye, and linking back to the parliamentary select committee report. Then I did search the free co-pilot chat version, and it said that across multiple reputable news sources, there have been documented cases of violent or hooligan-like behaviour. It says it doesn't mean all fans behave this way, only that certain groups have been involved in serious incidents.

8:02But it weights it more towards Maccabi fans being hooligans. Some of those sources, Middle East Eye, Five Pillars, The Canary, Middle East Monitor. Some of those sites you might characterise as more anti-Israeli. What has this done, do you think, for confidence in the police? Which, you know, you don't have to be a broadcast journalist or someone working in home affairs policy at the moment to understand it's not great. The MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee said it has led to a loss of trust and confidence in policing more broadly because this is one of the most high-profile policing incidents of the year.

8:40If this is what they can do on a high-profile case, that was already brewing into a geopolitical controversy. What other cases could they be using co-pilot for that might seem less contentious but don't get anything like the same level of scrutiny? So an ordering member of the public could find themselves being investigated with evidence that is found from a free version of AI software. We've seen it on other matters of public controversy, whether it's the post office scandal as well and confidence in how cases involving staff in post offices are addressed. And, you know, this again is using technology as well and how it's abused and actually sort of literacy around the use of technology like AI as it's growing, as the models are constantly changing as well, and how much you can rely on it, how it can assist your work.

9:27So is there genuinely no national guidance to police forces on what to do with artificial intelligence or what not to do, more appropriately? The National Police Chiefs Council, There is not a clear policy. They just talk about they're confident that the potential benefits of using AI outweigh the risks posed. So they're not saying ban it, even though one of their forces has. So maybe in all this, West Midlands are completely overreacting and banning it. Or they've actually taken the right cautious approach, given the level of concern about its use in this Maccabi case. Was that then the most revelatory aspect of this story for you?

10:05The lack of joined up thinking between police forces across this country? Yes. Why did eight police forces tell us that they won't use AI in investigations across the UK, but 21 told us they will? They can't both be right. And you would think, given everything involving West Midlands police, it would become quite a situation to be prioritised. Given the controversy, given it forced out Craig Guilford, the chief constable, which doesn't happen every day, a chief constable going, it hadn't happened in decades. The government saying they'd lost confidence in a chief constable, lacked the power to be able to fire him.

10:41It relied on him stepping down, pressure coming from the West Midlands. But this spiralled into such a controversy that undermined confidence in how police go about investigating. To what extent have Microsoft accepted responsibility for the things that their software spouts? Well, Microsoft told us that they are continuously evaluating and improving our services. And they encourage organisations to use Copilot within their own governance and review practices. So it's putting the onus on companies to adopt methodology and guidelines in terms of its use. So they do tell companies that the enterprise version does only work with an organisation's data security and access controls, pointing people towards that.

11:27Effectively saying that the free chat version can be perhaps less reliable in terms of company level searches. So for the time being, a yellow card for AI, not quite a red. Well, certainly not a red card from all forces across the country because so many are still believing in AI's ability to help them police. but there are many who do have concerns in policing across the country and ultimately this is about resources in policing. If dozens of forces across the country can be taking their own individual decisions on which bit of AI technology to be used whereas their replication across other parts of the policing services as well duplications and lack of coherent joined up thinking to ensure efficient practices, to ensure best practices are shared to ensure there is wider confidence in policing.

12:17Rob, thanks very much. Good to join you. And that's your lot for today. To see the full content from Rob's investigation, just head over to the website, skynews.com. The Daily will be back again tomorrow.