UK police build Amazon Alexa app to report crimes and drive recruitment

Lancashire Police plans to hire 200 new officers over the next 12 months

The Lancashire police force are using an Amazon Alexa app that they have developed to provide daily crime briefings to peoples' homes.

Said to be the first British police force to be tapping into this technology, Lancashire police officials said they're using Alexa to keep in touch with the public.

Amazon Echo owners can download a free app onto their devices. It provides information about wanted and missing people on an hourly basis.

The app is part of an official recruitment drive in the region. The county has plans to hire 200 new police officers between 2018 and 2019 in order to deal with growing crime rates.

Although there's no information about the number of people using the service, an estimated 11 million people have purchased an Amazon Echo speaker since its launch in 2014.

PC Rob Flanagan, who works as innovations manager at Lancashire Constabulary, developed and launched the app with the support of engineers at Amazon.

Speaking to the BBC, he explained that the app is aimed at improving communication between the police force and local communities.

He said: "As a police force we are always looking at ways to engage with our communities. Alexa works alongside traditional policing methods to inform the public about the important issues in their neighbourhoods."

This technology may be in its infancy, but according to the force, voice searches are responsible for 10 per cent of online searches. And this figure is expected to grow considerably over the next two years.

PC Flanagan added: "We want to be at the forefront of this new technology to make it easier for the public to access the information they want to know."