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Aimee Smith, Director of Data, Metropolitan Police Service

Describe your career to date

I wanted to be a professional Nottingham Forest fan with a bit of acting on the side…but it wasn’t to be. I left university with a first class degree in Social Policy and Criminology and got a job working for the Metropolitan Police Service as an Intelligence Analyst. Twenty-three years later I am still here. I have held roles in a variety of roles and seniority in Intelligence (the Child Abuse Department, Burglary and Robbery, Drugs, and gun-wielding Organised Crime Groups), undertaken transformation of our Intelligence capabilities, and led the largest Covert Intelligence Unit in UK Policing. After completing the Strategic Command Course, I led the Met’s Data Transformation Programme; building the first Data Office in policing. I now lead that Data Office and concurrently volunteer to co-Chair the National Police Data and Analytics Board on behalf of 43 forces and other law enforcement partners.

Data literacy is a key enabler of the value and impact from data. How are you approaching this within your organisation?

Data literacy is at the core of our current transformation. We have already embedded data awareness and responsibilities into new recruit and front-line-leaders training. We have a marketplace of data ads and mandatory training which all officers and staff undertake – everything from data-sharing through management and artificial intelligence (AI). This year, we will be aligning literacy for data professionals alongside new role profiles and career pathways. Nationally, we are aligning all of the above for wider UK forces with the College of Policing and have a significant amount of time training the next wave of Chief Constables on their Executive Leadership Programme.

How are you preparing your organisation for AI adoption and change management?

Our preparation is thoughtful and considered. We have limited deployment of this so far (facial recognition being an exception). There is so much at stake for policing in its application of AI; maintaining community support, public trust and confidence, ethics in what we should do, not what we could (when things are already at an all-time low). We know that AI adoption will make positive changes for the public, but where we apply that capability needs to be cognisant of bias, ethics, and disproportionality. So, right now, we are getting our AI framework and appetite right at Board level and exploring where we will genuinely get merit from its application. Not everything being considered in the private sector can work for us.

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Aimee Smith
has been included in:
  • 100 Brands 2022 (EMEA)
  • 100 Brands 2023 (EMEA)
  • No. 3 100 Brands 2024 (EMEA)

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