SpainPublic sector2017–2024Spanish National Police
VeriPol classification of potentially false robbery reports
Spanish police stopped VeriPol because its results lacked validity in judicial proceedings
Problem
Spanish police used VeriPol to flag potentially false robbery reports through automated analysis of their wording.
Approach
Police and university researchers developed the statistical text classifier and piloted it in Málaga and Murcia in June 2017 before announcing wider deployment in 2018. Civio reported concerns about transparency, training data and the fact that police officers wrote the reports being classified. The police confirmed that VeriPol stopped operating in October 2024. The Interior Ministry told Civio that it had abandoned the tool because it lacked validity in judicial proceedings.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The tool classified the language of police-written reports rather than a direct record of a complainant's speech. Its deployment outlasted unresolved questions about transparency and the practical evidential value of its output.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Partner co-development
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
Civio obtained police confirmation of the October 2024 shutdown and the ministry's explanation concerning judicial validity. It described the 2017 pilot, statistical language model and published criticisms of the system's design and transparency.
RTVE reported the introduction of VeriPol to detect false reports of robbery and bag-snatching. Its launch coverage presented police claims about accuracy and nationwide availability.
Full details are in the original sources.
