FOI 15443

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: HRC0015443/26

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 22^nd June 2026.  Please find below the response to your request:

Please provide the following information regarding logged incidents within your Force. I looking to understand how many police incidents have been linked to individuals experiencing distress following AI chatbot use.

To ensure this remains within Section 12 cost limits, please restrict this request to a basic, automated keyword search of your systems.

1. a) Between 1st January 2023 and the date of this request, how many total logged incidents contain one or more of the following specific text phrases within the log text or incident summary?
   
   "ChatGPT"; "AI chatbot"
   
   b) For any matches identified in Question 1 a), please provide a breakdown of the number of incidents by calendar year (2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 to date).
   
   For the identified matches, please provide:
   
   c) The high-level incident opening or closure category (e.g., "Concern for Welfare", "Mental Health", "Domestic Incident").
   
   d) Whether the incident resulted in a detention under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act.
   
   

Reply

A search has been carried out as requested on both the incident management system and the crime management system. The results include all contexts for ChaptGPT or AI Chat, for example a victim passing correspondence through ChaptGPT which suggested the messages were indicative of a controlling behaviour and so a report was made to police, or the suspects of a theft had made their booking using AI Chat. 

The closing category and primary offence group has been included

None of the above summaries suggest that any persons were arrested due to concerns for mental health.