Technological advances will be a huge driver of policing over the next few years, but they will also benefit criminals, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
The Chair of the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council recently announced that the NPCC was launching a new Science and Technology Committee to drive cutting-edge technological projects, adding that digital fingerprint matching, facial recognition, automation and drones were already changing policing.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cThis is a mixed bag because, on the one hand, technological advances help us when we\u2019re talking about facial recognition and drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s also a problem when you think about what AI means for fraud. How is AI going to work in future with video evidence? Is it going to make it a challenge because people will be able to say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not me. That\u2019s a fake image\u2019? The way that criminals are using technology is scary.<\/p>\n
\u201cFraud is becoming more sophisticated and complex. That means that it\u2019s going to require more officer hours to deal with it and more specialised officers, which I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re prepared for yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not against technological advances. But the public still expects to physically see and speak to police officers. We can\u2019t have a situation where people want to speak to a police officer and instead they\u2019re talking to a bot online. That can\u2019t happen. The public won\u2019t stand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n