Watchdogs express alarm at the implications for victims of AI-powered crime-fighting software with access to sensitive personal information
An AI-powered police intelligence system being trialed in Britain risks “revictimising” survivors of rape and other serious crimes by trawling data including their health and sexual history, the Government’s victims’ tsar has warned.
The Nectar software platform, which is being piloted after the Home Office gave the green light for police forces to use technology provided by Silicon Valley giant Palantir Technologies, brings together dozens of law enforcement databases.
The information includes details on people’s race, sex lives, political beliefs, and health records.
Concerns has been raised by Baroness Newlove, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, that the system risks setting back the way victims of serious offences, including rape, are treated by the criminal justice system by potentially exposing sensitive personal information to processing by algorithmic software.
Police say the Nectar system, which is currently being trialed by Bedfordshire Police and could be rolled out nationally, has the potential to be a powerful crimefighting tool by using AI to process information, which currently takes days to collate in a matter of minutes to build profiles of suspects and victims.
The existence of the intelligence platform was revealed after The i Paper and Liberty Investigates obtained an internal Bedfordshire Police memo which describes “Nectar” as a “real-time data sharing network” with access to 11 types of “special category information”, including “race”, “political opinions”, “religion” and “sex life”.
Both police and Palantir have underlined that the software only accesses existing information held by law enforcement agencies, and no data is routinely accessible to non-police staff.
The Bedfordshire force told The i Paper and Liberty Investigates that Nectar was not yet being used for criminal investigations and was currently being deployed in a limited form for tasks such as the enforcement of Clare’s Law – the legal mechanism which gives people the right to know if their partner or ex-partner has any previous history of violence or abuse.
But Baroness Newlove said she had significant concerns that the ability of the system to access multiple sources of personal data could result in victims and their credibility being needlessly profiled during investigations.
She said: “For too long, victims of rape and serious sexual assault have faced unacceptable, invasive demands for their personal data in investigations. I fear sensitive data will be used to unnecessarily profile victims and scrutinise their credibility, rather than focusing on the perpetrators of crime.”
The commissioner pointed to the progress made via initiatives such as Operation Soteria, a Home Office-backed programme to tackle low-conviction rates for rape and other serious sexual offences by promoting “suspect-focused” investigations.
Official figures show that the number of rape prosecutions has increased in recent years, although the number of complaints leading to a charge or summons remains between three and four per cent.
‘Sensitive data will be used to unnecessarily profile victims’
Referring to Operation Soteria, Baroness Newlove said: “This must be the way forward. We do not want to be dragged back to a system that too often revictimises those brave enough to come forward.”
Her concerns were echoed by campaigners highlighting violence against women and children, who pointed out that it is common in domestic abuse cases for suspects to make spurious counter-claims in the hope of deflecting blame and prompting an investigation into their victim.
Rebecca Hitchen, head of policy and campaigns at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said there were “serious concerns” about the Nectar system. The charity has previously criticised the “excessive” collection of data from victims, such as medical records, therapy notes, and social media data.
She said: “Rape victims have had huge swathes of their personal and private information shared without their consent as part of police practice that scrutinises the victim rather than the suspect. This project risks embedding this further.”
The warnings follow previous concerns expressed by senior MPs and privacy campaigners about the reach of AI-backed data systems and the way in which the information they contain is used and safeguarded in a law enforcement context.
David Davis, a former Cabinet minister and shadow home secretary, has called on Parliament to scrutinise the new system and its legal underpinnings.
Bedfordshire Police said Nectar remained at “very early stages” of deployment in areas such as the application of Clare’s Law and that it was assessing its internal data scrutiny processes as well as establishing an ethics committee to review its use of AI.
The force’s internal memo makes clear the ambition of senior officers for Nectar to be eventually used across policing, including the fight against serious organised crime.
A spokesperson said: “We are at the very early stages of development of this technology, which is only being used to surface information and data we already hold in the most efficient way to assist our officers and staff. Everything is quality assured by an officer or staff member, and the areas being piloted are already delivering huge time savings and identifying safeguarding opportunities to further enhance our ability to protect the public.”
Palantir, which has provided the software platform for Nectar and a similar system understood to be in development by the Leicestershire force, said criticism of a perceived risk to victims of crime appeared to misunderstand how the system is currently being used.
A spokesperson said: “The software is helping to bring together information scattered across different police systems, enabling people to be informed more quickly if their partner has a history of violence. The work is entirely focused on identifying those who have a record of violent or abusive behaviour, who pose a risk to their current or ex-partner.
“And it is working too – reducing the time taken to perform checks by 85 per cent and improving their accuracy, with the potential to double the number of people who can be alerted to the risk they face.”
The Home Office did not respond to a request to comment on Baroness Newlove’s concerns. It has previously insisted it will remain a matter for “operationally independent” police chief constables to decide how to deploy AI systems in fighting crime.
However, it has emerged that the Whitehall department directly approved Bedfordshire’s plan to pilot the Nectar system prior to its implementation in a pilot phase earlier this year. Responding to a parliamentary question following the revelation of the existence of the intelligence platform, policing minister
Dame Diana Johnson said: “Bedfordshire Police consulted the Home Office on appointing Palantir for a pilot scheme trialling AI technology and this was agreed.”
She added: “AI deployment must be lawful, transparent, ethical and underpinned by robust data and governance arrangements.”
