Aimee Smith, the Director of Data at the Metropolitan Police, is leading a groundbreaking transformation in law enforcement. She discusses the shift to AI and cloud technology, highlighting innovative initiatives like the V100 program aimed at reducing violence against women. Aimee shares insights on the Met’s data strategy, tracing its origins to a vision of leveraging data for smarter policing. From integrating operational systems to enhancing community safety through analytics, her work is redefining how police engage with data.
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Aimee Smith's Career Journey
Aimee Smith started her career inspired by a childhood story about the Saddleworth murders. - She progressed through intelligence analysis to lead data transformation at the Met Police.
insights INSIGHT
Diversity of Met's Data
The Met holds varied data types from 1829 records to modern digital records. - These diverse data sets are unique assets helping to fight crime and serve victims.
insights INSIGHT
Complex Policing Missions
Policing has multiple missions like crime prevention, response, and victim support. - This complexity complicates the use of data for precise decision making.
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The book tells the story of the Oakland Athletics' 2002 season, where General Manager Billy Beane and his assistant Paul DePodesta used advanced statistical analysis, known as sabermetrics, to assemble a competitive team despite a limited budget. The approach, pioneered by Bill James, focused on metrics such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage rather than traditional measures like batting average and runs batted in. This data-driven strategy allowed the Athletics to compete with teams having much larger payrolls, like the New York Yankees, and achieve significant success, including a 20-game winning streak and a playoff appearance[2][3][5].
Step into the future of policing where data is a mission-critical asset. Cindi Howson talks with Aimee Smith, Director of Data at the Metropolitan Police, about the Met’s bold data transformation—from digitizing records dating back to 1829 to using AI and cloud tech for smarter, faster decisions. Hear how initiatives like the V100 program and real-time analytics help improve city safety.
Key Moments:
Genesis of the Met’s Data Strategy (03:35) - The Met's data strategy's origin is traced to former Commissioner Cressida Dick's leadership, who envisioned leveraging data to transform policing, leading to a program building data capabilities and broadening analytics use beyond traditional intelligence and performance applications.
Mission with Data and AI (13:34): The Met's overarching mission to use data and AI for precise decision-making is articulated, acknowledging the complexity of policing's multiple goals: crime prevention, incident response, organized crime intervention, victim service, and custody safety.
Infrastructure Evolution (15:18): The transformation of the Met's data infrastructure over 5 years, from 8 separate operational systems to an integrated one with cloud technology adoption, is described, enhancing analytics and data science capabilities.
V100 Initiative (19:58): The V100 initiative, a data and analytics effort to reduce violence against women and girls by prioritizing individuals with a history of harm, is explained.
Concert Security Powered by Analytics (27:50): The use of ThoughtSpot by frontline officers is illustrated with a sergeant's innovative application for analyzing crime data around events like the Taylor Swift Eras tour to improve policing plans.
AI Agent Development (36:37): An innovative project to build an AI agent that assists frontline officers at crime scenes by providing real-time guidance is outlined, aiming to improve public protection and investigative outcomes.
Key Quotes:
“So if an officer wants to start being able to do their own searches, creating their own sort of planners, thinking about doing their own trend analysis essentially, of crime data, which is great, isn't it? I mean, that's just exactly how you want ThoughtSpot to be used. Every officer has access to that.” - Aimee Smith
"I like to think of it as a utility belt—you know how cops wear their utility belt? Well, hanging on there is this ThoughtSpot tool. A sergeant invented a way to use it for planning major events, concerts, to make sure our presence is right. And now that's replicable by other people who want to do the same thing." - Aimee Smith
"One of the 5 principles of our business strategy for London to keep it safe is to be more precise in the use of data for decision making. So it's a high-level principle of our strategy. That makes data and analytics much harder, because there aren't enough data specialists and too many data parts to point at all those missions in one go.” - Aimee Smith
Aimee Smith's distinguished career in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) spans almost a quarter-century, truly a testament to her profound dedication to integrating robust data into the very core of police decision-making. She embarked on her journey in 2001 as an Intelligence Analyst, steadily rising through the ranks. By 2014, her leadership capabilities led her to head UK Policing’s largest Confidential Intelligence Unit. A pivotal "light-bulb moment" crystallized for her the critical importance of effective data management in driving operational outcomes, inspiring her to passionately spearhead the comprehensive MPS data transformation program. In a landmark achievement, Aimee was appointed as the first Director of Data for the MPS, where in 2019, she successfully established the inaugural Data Office within law enforcement, fundamentally reshaping how the service leverages its information.
The Data Chief 