Governance structure is ‘a bush, not a tree’ – whatever that means
UK police forces have no overarching rules for introducing controversial technologies like AI and facial recognition, the House of Lords has heard. Baroness Shackleton of the Lords’ Justice and Home Affairs Committee said the group had found 30 organisations with some role in determining how the police use new technologies, without any single body to guide and enforce the adoption of new technologies. Under questioning from the Lords, Kit Malthouse, minister for crime and policing, said: «It is complicated at the moment albeit I think most [police] forces are quite clear about their own situation.» Malthouse admitted the governance structure for introducing new technologies in UK policing was «a bush, not a tree.» Seemingly pleased with the metaphor, he said: «Some people may say within that bush there is protection or within a tree, things become more assertive. Others may agree that the clarity of the tree is preferable.» Malthouse also pointed out there is a National Policing Digital Strategy, which claims to be a «new digital ambition for the UK police service to leverage digital technologies to build capability.
