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.
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.
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”.
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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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
David Davis, the 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.
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.”
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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.
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.
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.”
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