West Midlands Police's acting Chief Constable has suspended use of Microsoft Copilot following a controversy that led to the early retirement of his predecessor over a recommendation to ban Israeli football fans from a Birmingham match.
The force's recommendation to block Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the team's Europa League match against Aston Villa on November 6 was partly based on material generated by the AI tool about disruption to a non-existent match against London club West Ham.
On January 6, former Chief Constable Craig Guildford told Parliament's Home Affairs Committee that his officers had not used AI to find this material, then corrected this in a letter to say they had.
Following criticism by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and others, Guildford retired at age 52. West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said that he had already started the process that would allow him to fire Guildford when he announced his retirement.
The force's acting Chief Constable, Scott Green, speaking at a public meeting with Foster on January 27, said he could not discuss the details of how Copilot was used as this was under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and West Midlands Police's professional standards department.
But Green added: "On my first day in office, I took the immediate step to turn off access to Microsoft Copilot within the force. Like everybody else, we will be using AI in the future, we will use Microsoft Copilot, but we are not going to do so until I am satisfied with the conclusion of what has happened in this case and until we have got broader policy and guidelines in place."
Responding to a query from The Register, Foster said: "Artificial intelligence has an important role to play in policing, to increase productivity, improve crime detection, and manage emerging threats. However, use of AI must be ethical, lawful, transparent, and evidence-based, so as to maintain the trust and confidence of the public."
"Serious concerns have arisen about the use of Microsoft Copilot by West Midlands Police, when preparing to police the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv football match in November 2025," Foster added. "It is important therefore that West Midlands Police pause its use, whilst resolving matters relating to the governance, oversight and regulation of its use, as a matter of urgency."
In the meeting, Foster also questioned Green about poor record keeping of meetings with Dutch police and findings of confirmation bias in the force's assessment of the risk from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. Green apologized for the way the force had handled the work, describing the failings as "damning." He said the force is working to rebuild trust with Jewish communities by investigating every report of antisemitic hate crime and introducing antisemitism training for staff.
In a white paper published this week, the government laid out plans for a big increase in the use of AI in policing, spending £115 million over the next three years on a new National Centre for AI in Policing to be known as Police.AI that will initially focus on automating administrative work. ®
Source: The register