A UK police force is dropping tricky cases on advice of an algorithm

A police force in the UK is using an algorithm to help decide which crimes are solvable and should be investigated by officers. As a result, the force trialling it now investigates roughly half as many reported assaults and public order offences. This saves time and money, but some have raised concerns that the algorithm could bake in human biases and lead to some solvable cases being ignored. The tool is currently only used for assessing assaults and public order offences, but may be extended to other crimes in the future. When a crime is reported to police, an officer is normally sent to the scene to find out basic facts. An arrest can be made straight away, but in the majority of cases police officers use their experience to decide whether a case is investigated further.