West Yorkshire Police tested an AI domestic-abuse risk tool inside the ICO's Regulatory Sandbox. The published Final Report shows the biggest gap was transparency planning, not the machine-learning model itself.
Details
Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
West Yorkshire Police, with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Period
2024
Keywords
policing, AI regulatory sandbox, domestic abuse risk assessment, data protection
Context
In late January 2024, West Yorkshire Police (WYP) was accepted into the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Regulatory Sandbox to test a Domestic Abuse Assessment Tool (DAAT), a supervised machine-learning system intended to help officers assess domestic-abuse risk and flag cases for early intervention, described as 'exceptional innovation using AI in a policing context.'
Activities
Within the sandbox, WYP worked with the ICO on the data-protection questions raised by processing sensitive personal data in a high-stakes policing context; the ICO advised that before WYP could decide what information about the tool's development, accuracy and fairness should be made public, it first needed to complete a stakeholder-mapping exercise.
Results
The engagement prioritized process over immediate outcomes: the ICO's Final Report describes the primary deliverable as 'a clearer transparency roadmap rather than a proven crime-reduction result,' and the tool remained undeployed force-wide at the time of reporting.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
West Yorkshire Police as promoter, UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Regulatory Sandbox team
Conditions for success
Completing a stakeholder-mapping exercise before making public-disclosure decisions
Close engagement with the data-protection regulator on fairness/accuracy questions before deployment
Common failure modes
Tool remained undeployed force-wide at reporting
Sandbox produced a transparency roadmap rather than a proven crime-reduction outcome
Where it fits
Governance type
local/regional police force working with a national data regulator
Scale
regional (West Yorkshire)
Income level
high-income
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Data sources
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