Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this afternoon stated that she no longer has confidence in the head of West Midlands Police, after it was revealed that the force used AI in compiling its risk assessment for its handling of a football match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in November.
Chief Constable Craig Guildford admitted earlier today that AI invented a fictitious game between the Israeli club and West Ham. This hardly helped his case that the decision to ban Maccabi fans in Birmingham was a foregone conclusion in the face of resistance from Muslim lobby groups. It does, however, strengthen allegations that police fabricated their intelligence case. Another question springs to mind, too: why did Britain’s third-largest police force rely on AI in such a contentious piece of decision-making?
