Grooming gangs investigators handed 'critical' new tools

All constabulary forces investigating grooming gangs successful England and Wales volition beryllium fixed entree to caller AI tools to assistance velocity up their investigations.

The artificial intelligence tools are already thought to person saved officers successful 13 forces much than £20m and 16,000 hours of probe time.

The apps tin construe ample amounts of substance successful overseas languages from mobile phones seized by police, and analyse a wide of integer information to find patterns and relationships betwixt suspects.

'We indispensable punish perpetrators'

The rollout is portion of a £426,000 boost for the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) programme, which supports officers to analyse analyzable cases involving modern slavery, region lines and kid enactment abuse.

The accrued entree to the AI exertion follows Baroness Casey's proposal for a nationalist operation to reappraisal acold grooming gang cases.

That cognition volition reappraisal more than 1,200 closed cases of kid intersexual exploitation.

"The intersexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs is 1 of the astir horrific crimes, and we indispensable punish perpetrators, supply justness for victims and survivors, and support today's children from harm," said safeguarding curate Jess Phillips.

"Baroness Casey flagged the request to upgrade constabulary accusation systems to amended investigations and safeguard children astatine risk. Today we are investing successful these captious tools."

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Lack of ethnicity information 'a large failing'

Police forces person besides been instructed by the location caput to cod ethnicity data, arsenic recommended by Baroness Casey.

Her June study recovered the deficiency of information showing enactment offenders' ethnicity and nationality successful grooming gangs was "a large failing implicit the past decennary oregon more".

She recovered that officials avoided the contented of ethnicity for fearfulness of being called racist, but determination were capable convictions of Asian men "to person warranted person examination".

The authorities has launched a nationalist enquiry into the maltreatment and further details are expected to beryllium announced successful the coming weeks.