The British police service faces an unprecedented challenge. With crime rates fluctuating, public expectations rising, and resources stretched thin, police forces across England and Wales are under immense pressure to deliver effective policing whilst maintaining a visible presence in communities. Yet a significant portion of police time is consumed not by investigating crimes or patrolling neighbourhoods, but by answering non-emergency telephone calls and processing routine enquiries. This inefficiency has prompted a strategic shift: the adoption of artificial intelligence for call triaging and management.
The results have been remarkable. By deploying AI-powered systems to handle routine, non-emergency queries, police forces are discovering they can free up thousands of hours of officer time—time that can be redirected to frontline policing duties. This represents a fundamental change in how policing operates, and it offers valuable lessons for any organisation struggling with call volume and resource allocation.
The Scale of the Challenge
To understand why UK police forces are embracing AI, it's essential to grasp the sheer volume of calls they receive. Thames Valley Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary, for example, field up to 5,000 calls every single day across their combined 24-hour operations. Of these thousands of daily calls, a significant proportion are not emergency calls (999) but non-emergency enquiries (101) and online queries. These range from requests for crime reference numbers and advice on reporting procedures to questions about lost property and general information requests.
Staffordshire Police, meanwhile, has historically struggled with lengthy waits on its 101 non-emergency line. Whilst the force has made improvements—reducing average answer times from 7.1 minutes to 3.3 minutes over a 12-month period—the underlying problem persists: human call handlers are spending valuable time answering questions that don't require human judgment or expertise.
This represents a profound inefficiency. A trained police officer or call handler, costing the taxpayer a significant salary, is tied up providing information that could be delivered by an automated system. Meanwhile, genuine emergencies and complex cases requiring human expertise are delayed because resources are stretched answering routine queries.
Enter Bobbi: AI Call Triaging in Action
In November 2025, Thames Valley Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary launched "Bobbi," an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to address this exact problem. Bobbi represents the first major deployment of AI call triaging technology in UK policing, and the results have been sufficiently positive that other forces, including Staffordshire Police, are now implementing similar systems.
Bobbi operates as a conversational AI system trained on the same information that human call handlers use daily. When a member of the public contacts the police through Bobbi, they interact with an AI that can understand their query, provide relevant information, and determine whether their issue requires escalation to a human operator. The system is sophisticated enough to recognise keywords and contextual clues that suggest vulnerability, risk, or emergency—and crucially, it immediately routes such calls to human staff.
The technology is not designed to replace human judgment in complex or sensitive situations. Rather, it acts as an intelligent filter, handling the straightforward queries that consume disproportionate amounts of staff time. A caller asking for a crime reference number, reporting a non-emergency issue, or seeking information about police services can receive an immediate, accurate response from Bobbi. Only when a situation requires human empathy, judgment, or specialist knowledge does the call transfer to a human operator.
This distinction is critical. By automating the routine, Bobbi frees human staff to focus on what they do best: dealing with complex, sensitive, and genuinely urgent matters.
The Real Benefit: Putting Officers Back on the Beat
The headline benefit of AI call triaging is straightforward: it saves time. But the deeper benefit—and the one driving police adoption—is more significant: it enables forces to redeploy officers to frontline duties.
Consider the numbers. The UK government has estimated that AI technologies, including call triaging systems, will save approximately six million hours of police officers' time annually. To put this in perspective, six million hours is equivalent to the working time of roughly 3,000 full-time police officers. For forces operating under severe budget constraints, this represents an enormous opportunity.
These hours don't disappear into thin air. Instead, they become available for what police forces describe as "frontline" work: responding to crimes, investigating incidents, patrolling neighbourhoods, and engaging with communities. This is the core mission of policing, and it's where public confidence is built.
Staffordshire Police's Chief Constable Becky Riggs made this explicit when discussing the force's adoption of Agentforce, a similar AI call-handling system. She noted that the system would "help with our response to the public, which historically we know we haven't done well." By automating simple queries, the force can ensure that human staff are available to handle genuine policing matters.
The government's broader policing reform strategy, announced in January 2026 by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, places this benefit at the centre of its vision. The reforms include a nationwide rollout of AI call triaging across all 43 police forces in England and Wales, backed by £140 million in investment. The explicit goal is to enable more officers to be deployed to frontline duties, delivering the visible, responsive policing that communities expect.
Beyond Call Handling: The Broader AI Ecosystem
Whilst Bobbi and similar call triaging systems grab headlines, they're part of a much broader deployment of AI across UK policing. The government has established a "Police.AI" centre to oversee the rollout and standardisation of AI tools across forces. This centre will test AI models for accuracy and reliability, help forces implement technology, and maintain a registry of all AI deployments.
The scope extends far beyond call handling. AI is being deployed to:
•Analyse CCTV and doorbell footage at scale, identifying suspects and patterns that would take human officers weeks to process
•Automate administrative tasks, such as redacting court documents and filing reports, freeing officers from desk-bound work
•Detect AI-generated deepfakes and other digital threats
•Support case review, with AI systems flagging potential issues or inconsistencies in detective work
These technologies, working in concert, create a multiplier effect. When officers aren't tied up answering phones or processing paperwork, they can focus on investigation and community engagement. When AI handles routine administrative tasks, officers spend less time behind desks. When AI assists with evidence analysis, investigations progress faster.
The cumulative effect is a police force that operates more efficiently, responds more quickly, and deploys more officers to visible, frontline duties.
Why Businesses Should Pay Attention
The police adoption of AI call triaging offers a blueprint for any organisation struggling with call volume and resource allocation. The principles are universal: routine queries consume disproportionate resources, automated systems can handle these queries effectively, and freeing staff from routine work enables them to focus on higher-value activities.
For businesses, the benefits are equally compelling. An AI receptionist in the UK can handle the same types of routine enquiries that consume your team's time: appointment bookings, information requests, call routing, and initial triage. Just as police forces are discovering, businesses find that automating these routine tasks dramatically improves efficiency and customer experience.
The cost comparison between traditional call handling and AI-powered alternatives is stark. Traditional solutions—whether in-house staff or outsourced call centres—require ongoing investment in training, management, and infrastructure. AI systems, by contrast, operate 24/7 without fatigue, improve over time through machine learning, and integrate seamlessly with existing business systems.
Flexible pricing models mean that businesses of any size can access this technology. Whether you're a small practice receiving dozens of calls daily or a larger organisation handling thousands, AI call triaging can be scaled to your needs and budget.
The Complete Picture: What Modern AI Can Do
Modern AI call triaging systems offer far more than simple call routing. The complete capabilities of contemporary platforms include intelligent call analysis, sentiment detection, multi-language support, CRM integration, and sophisticated call routing based on caller needs and agent availability.
These capabilities mean that AI isn't just handling calls—it's improving the entire customer or citizen experience. Callers receive immediate responses to routine queries. Complex issues are routed to the most appropriate specialist. Follow-up information is automatically logged and available to support staff. The entire process becomes more efficient, more responsive, and ultimately more satisfying for the person making the call.
Taking the Next Step
For organisations considering AI call triaging, the path forward is clear. The police have demonstrated that the technology works, delivers measurable benefits, and enables organisations to redeploy resources to higher-value activities. The question is no longer whether AI call triaging is effective, but how quickly organisations can implement it.
If you're interested in exploring how AI call triaging could transform your organisation, a practical first step is to experience the technology firsthand. A 30-day free trial allows you to test an AI receptionist system with real calls, real scenarios, and real data. This isn't a limited demonstration—it's a full implementation, giving you and your team a genuine sense of how the technology performs in your specific context.
The UK police are putting more officers on the beat through AI-powered call triaging. Your organisation can do the same with your team's time and resources.