Professor Miroslaw Bober, the project lead at the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, said he hoped the system could be rolled out widely to other police forces and local authorities, having been used in a trial as part of the Met’s Operation Spectre, which aims to tackle knife crime.
Knife Hunter, a system developed by the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, can help police forces identify weapons and then trace their origins more quickly, and has been developed in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police.
A new AI system trained to identify knives could help “transform” how police forces tackle knife crime, researchers have said.
The research team said it can allow police to more easily log weapons found, recovered or seized, trace retail or illegal import channels and monitor geographical trends – as well as see reports the system generates on knife crime patterns to help support policing and inform policymaking.
At a time when the UK Government is trying to rebalance their approach to AI, from leading with risk management and safety to placing seizing the opportunities for AI to improve lives front and centre, we’re showing how people-centred AI can transform lives and communities for the better,” he said.
