West Yorkshire Police has become the first force in England and Wales to deploy AI to extract insight from historic control room calls.
Developed in partnership with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme, the capability, known as Post Call Analysis (PCA), has gone live following a pilot.
Police control rooms manage high volumes of public contact, but much of the detail contained within calls is not consistently captured in command and control systems. While calls are routinely audio recorded, the information logged often relies on operator notes, limiting the ability to analyse demand, identify trends, and connect intelligence across incidents.
PCA has been introduced as a secure, modular capability that integrates with existing control room processes. It automates tasks including transcription and categorisation, while operational decision-making remains with trained staff. All calls processed through the system are recorded and transcribed within a police-controlled environment.
The system generates summaries and categorises calls by topic, supporting faster retrieval and analysis of contact data. It has been trained exclusively on police data, with outputs accompanied by plain language explanations in line with national standards for the use of artificial intelligence in policing.
Functionality includes repeat caller analysis to identify patterns of contact, detection of indicators of hidden vulnerability, and compliance monitoring to assess whether appropriate advice has been provided to callers.
It has been developed jointly by West Yorkshire Police and the DPC programme, alongside the NPCC Public Contact portfolio team, with DPC providing a national framework to support local implementation.
Early pilot results at West Yorkshire Police indicate improvements in the capture of intelligence from public contact and identification of vulnerability. During testing, the system identified 21% more calls containing indicators of hidden vulnerability compared with standard processes.
Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper, NPCC Contact Operations Lead, said: “By capturing and analysing intelligence that has historically been locked away in calls, this capability helps forces better understand demand, identify vulnerability earlier, and make more informed decisions.”
Assistant Chief Constable Rob McCoubrey, of West Yorkshire Police, said the capability was already helping the force build a clearer understanding of demand. He added: “It is important to be clear that this technology supports our control room professionals – it does not replace their expertise.”