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West Yorkshire Police is the first force in England and Wales to go live with a new artificial intelligence capability designed to extract insight from historic and live control room calls.
Working in partnership with the National Police Chiefs’ Council Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme, the force is using AI-based Post Call Analysis (PCA) to automates routine tasks. These include transcription, producing short summaries and categorisation by topic, while ensuring that operational decision‑making remains with trained staff. It is trained exclusively on police data and aligns with NPCC and College of Policing standards for responsible, transparent and ethical use of AI.
The reason for taking this AI-based approach is because police control rooms receive very high volumes of contact from the public. The NPCC estimates that between 50–60% of calls are not audio recorded and where recordings do exist, forces typically rely on operator notes rather than the full content of calls.
The NPCC says that the current approach limits the force’s ability to analyse demand, identify emerging trends, and connect intelligence across incidents, while adding pressure to control room staff. PCA provides context to help understand repeat contact; helps with identifying vulnerabilities of callers and assists with compliance with guidance and policy. The pilot with West Yorkshire Police has already shown improvements in these areas.
“This capability is still in its early stages, but it is already starting to show how it can help us build a clearer understanding of the calls for service coming into our control room.
“By securely analysing historic calls in a timely and consistent way, it gives us an additional source of insight that can highlight vulnerability we may otherwise not have spotted and help us understand where further staff support or training might be beneficial.”
Assistant Chief Constable Rob McCoubrey, Operational Support, West Yorkshire Police.
NPCC Contact Operations Lead ACC Stuart Hooper says he is encouraged by the pilot findings, adding that it has shown what is possible when forces and national programmes like DPC work in partnership “to design and deliver AI in a responsible and transparent way.”
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