Ethics Advisory Report for West Midlands Police

Using analytics in policing

Abstract

In 2018 the Institute’s Data Ethics Group, working with the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing, delivered a co-authored report commissioned by West Midlands Police regarding a proposal for the National Analytics Solution.

The National Analytics Solution is a consortium of law enforcement bodies led by West Midlands Police who have worked together to produce a high-level design for how advanced analytics could be utilised within a national law enforcement context to prevent harm, reduce criminality and protect the vulnerable.

The report, which scrutinised the ethical implications of the proposed project, was welcomed by West Midlands Police as an impartial contribution to its development. 

Since receiving the report, West Midlands Police have begun work on the National Analytics Solution project and are actively drawing on advice offered by the Turing and IDEPP to help develop their approach to the ethical governance of the project. They have also responded to the ethics report with their own comments. 

Read the news story and find the full ethics report below.

Additional information

Authors from Turing Data Ethics Group: Charles Raab, Jonathan Cave, Jennifer Davis and Burkhard Schafer.

Authors from the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing: Neil Brown, Bryan Edwards and Jennifer Housego.

Turing affiliated authors

Research areas