Cheshire leads the way with technology to help identify stalking behaviours sooner

An artificial intelligence (AI) capability is being developed in Cheshire, enabling complex stalking behaviours to be identified at an early stage.

This is as a result of a successful £300,000 bid to the Police STAR (Science, Technology, Analysis and Research) Fund, made by Dan Price, Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner. 

Dan Price is driving forward solutions to modernise policing, with the introduction of AI to help streamline processes.

Dan Price, Police and Crime Commissioner said:

“It’s vital that the Constabulary adopts technology and uses it to help tackle crime. Modernising Cheshire Police is one of my key pillars in my Police and Crime Plan. I am making important strategic decisions to ensure technology is embraced by the Constabulary. 

“If this programme is proven to work here in Cheshire, we’re hoping it will be adopted nationally by other forces, to help victims all over the country, increasing public confidence in the police.”

On average, Cheshire Police records 10 stalking offences a day. Its Harm Reduction Unit (HRU) – specialising in tackling stalking and harassment – manually reviews incidents to identify stalking and help victims.

The AI capability will analyse incoming incident reports created by police call handlers whilst they’re talking to a victim. The programme will be trained using information provided by the force’s HRU and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to help identify stalking behaviours, regardless of the word stalking being mentioned.

This will flag the incident up to the HRU enabling the offence to be identified at an early stage.

Detective Chief Inspector Danielle Knox, lead for Stalking at Cheshire Constabulary, said:

“Stalking is a hugely impacting crime on victims and their families; our approach to this serious and complex crime needs to be right from the outset where we can identify behaviours at the earliest opportunity. The hope is that the use of AI will further support Cheshire Police’s leading approach to tackling stalking, holding perpetrators to account, and protecting victims. Cheshire’s Harm Reduction Unit are seeking to use this technology to further improve how quickly we identify stalking crimes and therefore how quickly we are able to robustly deal with the perpetrators.”

Bidding for funds to create specialist programmes, such as this, is a key part of what the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner does. This funding enables the PCC and Cheshire Police to create early intervention and prevention activities that would not have been possible otherwise.

Technology led programmes and initiatives are a key part of Dan Price’s Police and Crime Plan which he has recently published for his term in office.

The plan, which runs until 2028, has three key focusses, modernisation, listening to the public and reducing crime.