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Online forms will be unavailable from 3am to 5am on Tuesday, 29 September while we complete some essential maintenance. If you need to report a crime during this time, please call us on 101, or 999 in an emergency.
Citizen Assist - A new, smart way to report crime
Reporting a crime or incident online should be simple, straightforward and accessible.
That's why we've introduced Citizen Assist, a new AI-powered reporting tool designed to help you create and submit non-emergency crime reports quickly and easily through a guided conversation.
By combining innovative AI technology with established police reporting processes, we're making it easier than ever to get the information we need to help you.
How it works:
Rather than filling in an online form, Citizen Assist utilises new AI technology to guide you through a series of simple questions, helping you provide the right information in the right order.
It works much like a conversation, making the reporting process easier to understand while ensuring important details aren't missed.
The system helps:
- Guide you through reporting an incident step-by-step
- Gather and curate key information needed to create a report
- Provide clear explanations and next steps
- Help ensure your report reaches us with accurate, high-quality information from the start
Designed with the public in mind
Citizen Assist has been developed to be accessible to people with different levels of digital confidence and experience. The conversation is designed to be clear, professional and supportive, helping you report an incident without unnecessary complexity or repetition.
The aim is to make online reporting faster and more convenient while giving you confidence that your information has been captured accurately.
Citizen Assist has been designed specifically for policing and is able to support the end-to-end reporting process, gathering information, building a structured crime report and submitting it directly into existing police systems.
FAQs:
No, when using Citizen Assist, please know you're speaking with an AI assistant. The tool helps gather information and create reports, but decisions about reports remain with police staff and officers. The system has been designed with responsible AI principles in mind, including transparency, fairness and safeguarding. Data submitted through Citizen Assist is handled in line with police processes, and the information you provide is reviewed as part of the normal reporting process.
It aims to make online reporting quicker and easier, improve the quality of information received, reduce the need for follow-up questions, provide clear guidance and expectations throughout the process, and help connect the public with more reporting options.
The submission will be sent on for a real person to review in our control room. The information will be assessed and processed in the exact same way as a call to 101, online report, or web chat would be.
Citizen Assist can help guide you through the process in a simple, conversational way. By combining innovative AI technology with established police reporting processes, we're making it easier than ever to get the information we need to help you.
It simply means you have more options of how you’d prefer to report a non-urgent crime online. We’re utilising AI technology to give the people of Cambridgeshire more ways to report than ever before.
Don’t worry – all data submitted through Citizen Assist is handled in line with police processes and is totally secure and confidential.
Simply head to the ‘report a crime’ section of our website and find the Citizen Assist button.
Chief Constable's involvement
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is taking part in the pilot scheme ahead of the national launch later this year due to Chief Constable Simon Megicks’ involvement with the Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme - a national initiative led by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), which aims to modernise and unify how the public interacts with the police.
Mr Megicks said: “This scheme is ultimately about utilising new technology to improve the service we can provide to the public, by developing and enhancing the reporting options already available to them.
“As we move through an increasingly digital world, as a force, we recognise the importance of embracing AI in a way that means we’re able to provide another, convenient way to report crime digitally.
“However, we want to be clear that this technology will not be replacing our other reporting methods, but rather offering the public another method to report crime, should they choose to utilise it.
“Citizen Assist is a great opportunity to harness modern technology to help ensure crime reports reach us with accurate, high-quality information from the outset, benefiting both the public, and the force.
“Whilst the AI technology will help to collect and collate relevant information and turn it into a crime report, all decisions about the report will remain firmly with police staff and officers, just as it does with existing online crime reports.
“I think it’s important that the technology enables people to explain what has happened in their own words, with the AI technology having the capability to ask follow-up questions, in order to capture a clear and accurate picture, collected in a concise crime report.
“I’m proud that, as a force, we are constantly developing the service we provide, and I believe that by taking part in this pilot, we will help to play our part in improving crime reporting options for the people of Cambridgeshire.”