Artificial intelligence tools are set to be deployed across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to tackle grooming gangs, following a £426,000 funding boost for the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) programme. The technology, already used by 13 forces, has been employed 12,500 times, saving over £20 million and 16,000 hours of investigative work.
The Home Office announced the expansion after Baroness Casey's rapid audit on grooming gangs in June recommended a national police operation to review cold cases. Operation Beaconport, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), has since been established to examine more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation.
The AI tools can translate large volumes of foreign language text from seized mobile phones and analyse digital data to identify patterns and relationships between suspects. Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips stated: 'The sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes... Baroness Casey flagged the need to upgrade police information systems to improve investigations and safeguard children at risk. Today we are investing in these critical tools.'
NCA director general Graeme Biggar emphasised the importance of providing reassurance to victims and families, adding: 'We must and will ensure their voices are heard and collectively, we will restore confidence that the law enforcement response to child sexual exploitation is without fear or favour.'
The Home Secretary has also written to police forces to ensure they collect ethnicity data, as recommended by Baroness Casey. Her report highlighted a 'major failing' over the past decade in recording the ethnicity and nationality of sex offenders in grooming gangs, noting that officials had avoided the issue for fear of being called racist, despite sufficient convictions of Asian men to warrant closer examination.
The Government has launched a national inquiry into the abuse, with further details expected in the coming weeks.
