AI saving thousands of hours of officers’ time

The force is believed to be the first to use the cutting-edge technology, which reduces the time spent on tasks which could have taken entire shifts to a few minutes.

The data redaction product Riven DocDefender was built with the help of officers and uses algorithms and text recognition to achieve 92 per cent accuracy in its pilot. This reduces the time taken by officers and staff to redact material such as personal data before it is sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.

It is estimated that once embedded it will save more than 9,500 officer and staff hours a year.

The latest solution is a result of Bedfordshire Police’s partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to identify potential providers to work with the force to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of police services.

Since DocDefender was deployed in June 2023, there have been several case studies evidencing the product’s efficiencies.

A detective constable redacted a phone download of 578 pages for her colleague in 20 minutes, which would previously have taken a couple of days; an officer redacted an 806-page document in approximately an hour; and a field intelligence officer redacted 350,000 cells in an Excel spreadsheet in 30 minutes, something that would have previously taken four hours.

Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst said: “This is another example of where technology can make a real difference to policing. It is saving hundreds of hours already, time which can be spent doing the work the public want – being out in our communities preventing crime and keeping people safe.

“This is just one of a number of tech solutions we are exploring, all with the aim of improving our service to the public and allowing our workforce to concentrate on policing.”

Riven, which designed the DocDefender system with AWS, said: “We have several safeguards in place to ensure the technology is used responsibly.

“We are proud that it gives officers significant time back to police their communities.”