How ‘Bobbi’ Is Transforming the Way People Interact with Law Enforcement

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.

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 forces estimate that 3,290 operational hours have been saved and the equivalent of more than 2.45 full-time roles redirected to front-line policing.

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."

These early results are pointing to a broader shift in how citizens and those working in law enforcement experience policing services, as digital tools reshape access, demand, and response. It's a level of success that can serve as an example for jurisdictions everywhere. "What's been particularly powerful and unexpected," said Dodds, "is seeing how these services can also help people access support in ways they may not have felt able to before."

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."

By using AI responsibly, we're making services more accessible and giving officers better tools to deliver timely, informed responses - to be that calm voice on the phone or on the front line.

The results so far bear that out. Bobbi carries a 4.6 out of 5 customer satisfaction score, and every single day since launch, at least one high-harm offense has been identified by the agent and escalated to a human operator. On average, two VAWG (violence against women and girls) cases are identified and routed for human intervention daily.

The technology stack behind Bobbi brings together Salesforce's Agentforce Public Sector,Data 360, and MuleSoft - which integrates the new platform with legacy policing systems including NicheRMS, the forces' primary crime and case management system. Updates requested through the portal are automatically stamped into the crime system; officer replies go back to the citizen without any duplicate data entry.

"Salesforce takes things to the next level for us," said Mike Lattanzio, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Thames Valley Police. "This is where AI can be a game changer in our services that protect our communities. By using AI responsibly, we're making services more accessible and giving officers better tools to deliver timely, informed responses - to be that calm voice on the phone or on the front line."

A new kind of access

Perhaps most striking about Bobbi's first six months are the conversations that wouldn't have happened any other way.

After Bobbi launched, Boyd received a handwritten thank-you note in the post. A woman wrote to say her son was having problems at school, and she wasn't sure whether what was happening was a crime or what to do. She'd talked it through with Bobbi, and it had explained what was and wasn't a crime, how to report if needed, and where to find support charities. She said she hadn't wanted to bother the police by ringing 101. But talking to the agent felt different.

That instinct - to not want to be a burden, to feel unsure whether a problem is worth reporting - is common. And it's one of the things the digital front door has started to change.

One evening, a 16-year-old boy found himself in a situation where calling 999 (the British 911) wasn't possible. His parents were in a serious argument at home; his father was making threats. He couldn't risk being overheard. Instead, he opened Bobbi on his device and typed out what was happening. Bobbi recognized the potential for harm and offered to connect him to a human operator through web chat. Once connected, the operator dispatched police, who arrived and de-escalated the situation - a safeguarding intervention that, under the old model, might never have reached anyone in time.

"This was quite bold for policing - a risky decision to go with this new technology," Boyd said. "It's not been done in policing before, but if we can do it, it will be so much better for victims of crime and the public we serve."

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