At least 21 police forces across England are still using Copilot AI despite West Midlands Police (WMP) blocking Microsoft’s tool after inaccurate evidence formed a decision to ban Israeli football fans, Sky News can reveal.
The Birmingham force turned off access to the software after admitting, following initial denials, that a Copilot “hallucination” was responsible for a match that never happened being included in an intelligence document justifying excluding Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa in November.
And, at the weekend, MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee highlighted fresh concerns about Copilot after saying it produced inaccurate key claims about past disorder around a contentious Maccabi match in Amsterdam in 2024.
Microsoft told Sky News it “continuously evaluates” Copilot and urges companies to review how they are using it.
Only eight of the forces across the UK who responded to our questions on their AI policy told us Copilot could not be used in investigations – including police in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Our discovery that so many forces still allow officers to use Copilot reinforces a disjointed approach across the country and lack of coordinated policing.
That is despite the Maccabi ban escalating into one of the biggest policing controversies last year, eventually leading to the WMP’s chief constable, Craig Guildford, being forced out under government pressure.
