Policing is widely regarded as one of the hardest environments in which to run digital transformation – high stakes, legal constraints, and life-or-death consequences leave little room for a “move fast and break things” mindset. Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis, strategic lead for organised and serious crime at An Garda Síochána, spoke to TransformGov host Maeve Kneafsey about how the organisation is nonetheless rebuilding itself around information-led policing, while keeping AI firmly in a supporting role.
Key Takeaways
- Information-led policing gives officers context before they respond — prior incidents, court orders, and firearms risk are checked ahead of arrival, not after.
- Mobile devices let officers check vehicle, insurance and licence data roadside, replacing radio call-backs to the station — rolled out fully over the last five years.
- Body-worn cameras produced a measurable, near-immediate drop in aggression toward officers at Dublin protests.
- Legacy technology is being retired out of necessity, not just ambition — suspect interviews are still recorded onto CDs, which are no longer manufactured.
- Frontline feedback reshaped the Investigation Management System mid-rollout, removing unnecessary tasks once officers flagged them.
- AI adoption is narrow and human-governed — used for knowledge hubs, CCTV analysis and CSAM triage, always with a “human in the loop” and EU AI Act compliance.
The Shift: From Paper-Heavy to Information-Led
An Garda Síochána is moving away from a traditionally paper-based organisation toward one where background information is available to officers before, not after, they respond to an incident.
Angela gave a concrete example: officers responding to a domestic abuse call can now check whether a firearm is registered at the address, whether court orders are in place, or whether there have been previous calls to that location. This is all vital in informing both their approach, but who attends the scene.
“It’s really just leveraging the information that’s available to us… in a manner that supports our members, but also supports victims of crime and our communities that we serve,” Angela said.
Mobile Devices and Body-Worn Cameras: Technology Changing Real-World Behaviour
Two initiatives illustrate how directly this technology is reshaping day-to-day policing. Every officer now carries a mobility device – described by Angela as “essentially like a mobile phone” – with access to the national vehicle file, driving licence data, and the PULSE case management system. Officers can check whether a car is insured or the driver disqualified before even approaching a checkpoint, a process that previously required a radio call back to the station.
Body-worn cameras have had an even more visible effect. Rolled out as a proof of concept across Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, with over 700 officers now trained, the cameras were introduced partly in response to escalating aggression at protests in Dublin city centre.
“Since the body-worn cameras have been introduced, that has really transformed that environment,” Angela said. “I think nearly overnight we saw a real reduction in the violence… towards our own members.”
Retiring Legacy Technology: The CD Problem
Not every transformation story is glamorous. An Garda Síochána is currently running a working group to replace its interview-recording system, which still uses compact discs. Part of the problem is that the discs are no longer being manufactured.
The project touches an unusually wide range of stakeholders: legal teams engaging with the Director of Public Prosecutions, data protection officers, ICT, finance, estate management (interview rooms will need physical upgrades), and a national interview advisor benchmarking systems used in other jurisdictions. The team is evaluating AI-supported transcription and translation tools, guided by the EU AI Act, though Angela was clear that any recording will remain the official record – AI tools are there to make the process easier to navigate, not to replace it.
Legislative change is also part of the picture: the Garda Powers Bill is expected to remove a long-standing requirement to manually write down interview records during a recorded interview, something Angela said the organisation has “been advocating for for a long time.”
Change Management: Listening to the People Using the System
The Investigation Management System (a digital platform replacing lever-arch folders of case material) is being rolled out division by division across the country. Its early iteration included tasks that made sense in theory but not in practice: officers were required to collect CCTV and take statements even after a suspect had already pleaded guilty in court.
“We listened to that feedback and we created an update to the system,” Angela explained, allowing supervisors to close out unnecessary tasks. The broader lesson, she said, is about designing for adoption: “We can have a great idea about how to fix a problem, but if it’s difficult for the people that are actually utilising it, well then that’s a problem.”
Where AI Fits — and Where Human Judgment Stays in Control
Angela was candid about where AI in policing is already delivering value, and where the organisation is deliberately cautious. A proposed knowledge hub — modelled on an approach used by Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners — would let officers query policy and legislation documents directly rather than searching manually. AI-assisted CCTV analysis can track objects or identify commonalities across thousands of hours of footage, creating what Angela described as “huge efficiencies.”
The most sensitive use case is in the Online Child Exploitation Unit, where AI tools can help triage material and filter out previously identified images — reducing officers’ repeated exposure to traumatic content. Angela was firm on the boundary: “Always with the human in the loop… we will never rely on a system just on its own. We will certainly have the checks and balances and the governance in place around it.”
The Takeaway
Asked what she’d tell peers embarking on similar transformation programmes, Angela pointed to courage and organisational humility: “We need to anticipate that things may go wrong… but not be deterred by those bumps because they will inevitably happen.” She expects AI to become as embedded in policing as the mobile phone within a few years — but was unequivocal about where the centre of gravity stays.
“Policing is ultimately a human endeavour… it will always be about the people, more so than any of the technology that we have.”
