Microsoft in policing
Every deployment of Microsoft technology by a law enforcement or justice body currently recorded on the tracker, across 1 country. Each entry is tied to a published source and carries the date it was last checked.
A deployment can involve more than one supplier. This page indexes entries where Microsoft is the principal named supplier; the full vendor detail on each entry below remains the fuller answer.
Deployments
UK At least 21 English police forces Microsoft 365 Copilot (generative AI) Operational
- Legal basis
- Internal force policy; no dedicated statutory framework for generative AI use
- Oversight
- Individual force AI-use policy; no independent national oversight body confirmed
At least 21 English forces were using Microsoft 365 Copilot as of February 2026, on a Sky News survey; no later recount has been published, so that figure should be read as a point-in-time count rather than a current one. Governance moved during 2026. Alex Murray, head of the new PoliceAI centre, told the Financial Times in June 2026 that he had instructed several forces in England and Wales to stop using commercially available AI to turn interview recordings into court-ready statements, and warned forces not to use AI for disclosure schedules until compliance checks were complete. Specific forces were not named. The Home Office subsequently listed exploring Copilot capability and establishing appropriate governance and safeguards among PoliceAI's first-year priorities. Individual misuse cases are now emerging, which is a different failure mode from the West Midlands hallucination and worth recording separately. A Derbyshire detective chief inspector is under IOPC-led independent investigation for alleged gross misconduct over using AI to maintain investigative decision logs; a second Derbyshire officer faces a criminal investigation for allegedly using AI to create evidential material in a number of cases; and a Gloucestershire Police staff member was dismissed for repeatedly bypassing blocks to use an AI chatbot for police work.
Source: Sky News investigation, reported via Resultsense · last checked 2026-08-25
UK West Midlands Police Microsoft 365 Copilot (generative AI) Paused
- Legal basis
- Internal force policy; no dedicated statutory framework for generative AI use
- Oversight
- House of Commons Home Affairs Committee inquiry
West Midlands Police switched off force-wide access to Microsoft Copilot in January 2026 after the tool generated false intelligence about a West Ham versus Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture, and associated disorder, that had never taken place. The fabricated information reached briefing material and shaped a risk assessment. Recorded as paused rather than discontinued. Acting Chief Constable Scott Green described the shutdown as temporary, in place until further notice, both in January and again in March 2026. No evidence of reinstatement had emerged as of August 2026, but a force describing a suspension as temporary is not the same as a decision to stop using a technology permanently, and this tracker records the difference. The force initially denied that AI had generated the erroneous intelligence; the Chief Constable subsequently corrected that evidence. The Home Affairs Committee reported in February 2026 that West Midlands Police failed to apply proper due diligence to false information generated by AI, and criticised what it called a remarkable lack of professional curiosity. This pause did not extend nationally. A Sky News survey published in February 2026 found at least 21 English forces still using Microsoft Copilot.
Source: House of Commons Home Affairs Committee correspondence, reported by ITV News · last checked 2026-08-25