How ‘Bobbi’ Is Transforming the Way People Interact with Law Enforcement
Today, both forces are operating differently. Since November 2025, an AI-powered digital assistant called Bobbi—built on Agentforce Public Sector and deployed in just 12 weeks — has been handling roughly 200 nonemergency conversations a day, resolving 45% of them without human intervention. The force estimates that 3,290 operational hours have been saved and the equivalent of more than 2.45 full-time roles redirected to front-line policing.
For years, nearly half of all nonemergency calls to Thames Valley Police and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary weren’t reports of new crimes. They were people asking the same question: What’s happening with my case? Roughly 400,000 calls a year, just to chase an update. Callers waited up to 24 minutes for an answer a call handler often couldn’t give because they didn’t have access to the case details. Worse, for victims of domestic abuse or sexual violence, that meant retelling traumatic experiences to a stranger — perhaps repeatedly — only to be told the officer would be emailed.
Bobbi is already strengthening the way police forces are working to protect their communities by providing an additional, accessible route for contacting them. The platform enables a simple, discreet way to ask questions, seek advice, or be guided to the right support at any time. By expanding on the established telephone and webform contact channels, Bobbi enables people to come forward in a way that works best for them, helping to build trust, improve accessibility, and reach those who might not otherwise make contact. Bobbi is also handling inquiries in multiple languages, opening policing services to communities that may face additional barriers to seeking support.
“This is a pioneering moment in policing,” said Chief Superintendent Simon Dodds from the Joint Operations Unit for Thames Valley Police and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. “Bobbi has allowed us to rethink how we manage nonemergency demand, ensuring our officers and staff can focus on the people and situations that need them most.”
How Bobbi works
Bobbi serves as the digital front door for nonemergency policing services, accessible through the force’s public website and secure Citizens Portal. Grounded in 91 verified knowledge articles covering everything from parking offenses and noise nuisances to domestic abuse, stalking, and sexual offenses, Bobbi answers routine inquiries instantly, walks citizens through next steps, and links them to reporting channels. Every response is capped at 350 words and built to be professional and empathetic.
The agent is deliberately built with guardrails. It can’t access the open internet or scrape unverified sources. Answers come only from the approved knowledge base. And it can’t yet take actions like filing a report or dispatching an officer. What it can do is recognize when a conversation requires a human.
If Bobbi detects a high-risk keyword or phrase — domestic abuse, stalking, sexual assault — it instantly flags a warning to a human supervisor in the background while simultaneously offering the citizen a seamless handoff to a live web chat. When the handoff happens, the human operator receives an AI-generated summary, a full transcript, and context on what’s already been discussed, directly in their Service console.
“We wanted to use the technology to deal with the lower-level inquiries like parking offenses or abandoned vehicles so we can free humans up to give their support in high-harm situations,” said Tom Boyd, Digital Product Manager. “We want to give that human touch to those specific situations. That was really important to us. It was a conscious decision.”
