AI system to cut 101 waits by diverting millions of non-police calls

The system, backed by £1.4 million of government funding, is designed to identify why callers are contacting 101 and redirect non-policing matters to the appropriate organisation before they enter a police call queue.

The Home Office estimates that around 20 million calls are made to 101 each year, with about four million – one in five – relating to services including local authorities, NHS 111 and the 105 electricity outage helpline.

Police also receive calls about issues ranging from delayed pizza deliveries and slow pub service to requests for lifts.

At present, many misdirected calls are only identified after the caller has reached a police call handler, adding to waiting times and unnecessary demand.

The new AI system has been developed by the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council with Vodafone Business and was piloted across 15 police forces.

It uses an AI model to identify the likely reason for a call and, where appropriate, offers to redirect it to another organisation before the caller enters the police queue.

The Home Office says the system has been trained and tested to ensure its performance is not adversely affected by factors such as accents or different ways of describing an issue.

Safeguards have also been built in to prevent callers needing police assistance from being inadvertently diverted. Callers are told how the system has understood their reason for calling and can accept or reject the proposed routing.

Additional safeguarding questions are asked where the reason for calling falls into a broad category, while calls where there is any doubt are passed directly to police.

The government estimates the system could save policing up to £8.5 million a year, allowing forces to reinvest the savings in local priorities.

Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones said call handlers were “wasting hours” dealing with calls intended for other organisations.

However, some have expressed concerns about the use of the new technology. Ellen Lefley, deputy legal director at JUSTICE, told LBC: “People want AI to improve policing, but they don’t want it to take over. The public’s relationship with the police and how they use technology – with their consent – is really important because it’s the lynchpin of public trust and we need to make sure that trust is maintained.

“There are lots of benefits to be gained. Does that mean I want to write a blank cheque for policing to use AI wherever and however they want? Absolutely not.”

John Lucey, VP EMEA at Cellebrite said “AI powered systems are accelerating police and law enforcement processes and empowering them to keep pace with crime in this digital landscape, acting as an assistant while human expertise remains at the forefront.

“AI can quickly generate contextual summaries from callers and direct calls to the right handler to act more consistently and crack down on even the most difficult crimes. The key is to always maintain a human-in-the-loop approach with clear audit trails and oversight that gives investigators control of what evidence is brought forward.”

15 police forces in England and Wales have already trialled the new technology, including Humberside, Durham, Nottinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, as well as

The initiative forms part of a £16.5 million government investment in modernising how police and the public interact, which will also include AI to transcribe 999 and 101 calls and link crime reports to identify patterns in demand.

The current 999 system will not be affected by the changes.