A summary of Simon Bradford, Emily Hill and Crizel Castro's session at Modernising Criminal Justice 2026
Salesforce has been working with police forces across England and Wales on a practical challenge: how to manage the surge of non-emergency contact without overwhelming frontline officers. The answer, they've found, is an AI agent called Bobbi - and it's already working in 15 forces across the country.
Starting with Victim Experience
Simon Bradford (Regional Vice President - National Safety & Justice at Salesforce) introduced the session by recapping Salesforce's earlier work on the victim journey. Over the past 12 months, they've worked with police to keep victims informed throughout a case - automated updates on crime progression, links to support services, the option to update the police or ask questions via a citizen portal. The results have been measurable: 15 forces live on the platform, over 8 million messages sent, reduced call demand on 999 and 101 lines, and notably higher victim satisfaction rates in high-harm crimes where people value that extra level of care.
But there was still a gap. Before a case reaches the point where someone is updating a victim, there's an initial contact problem.
Introducing Agent Bobbi
Emily Hill (Policing Innovation Account Director at Salesforce) described the genesis of Bobbi: the first citizen-facing AI agent in law enforcement globally.
The challenge was straightforward but significant. Police receive around 1.3 to 1.4 million calls annually. About 400,000 of those are people re-contacting about something they've already reported - failure demand. Officers were spending up to 30 minutes answering these calls. With Bobbi, that's dropped to between 2.5 and 3 minutes.
Bobbi is not a replacement for 999. It's specifically designed for that high-volume, low-risk contact space: people who need information, want to report a non-urgent crime, or don't know how to navigate the system. The agent uses 91 knowledge articles written by the force itself, covering everything from bird crime to domestic violence. About 80 per cent of the content is reusable across forces, so when other police services adopt Bobbi, they benefit from that foundational work.
Emily demonstrated Bobbi live. Asked about e-scooters, it provided clear guidance on privately owned versus rental devices, penalties for misuse - practical, formatted information you can self-serve on your phone at your own time. Asked what to do after a car break-in, it walked through the steps without requiring a phone call. But the real power emerged when someone disclosed issues in a relationship that might indicate coercive control. Bobbi's language shifted. It identified the situation as potentially domestic abuse, offered information about what that means and where support is available, then highlighted the option to speak to a person immediately. The handoff to live chat was seamless.
What Makes It Work
Building Bobbi took four days, but they spent eight weeks testing - 3,000 conversations with 200 stakeholders. The force now treats Bobbi like a member of the team. When Bobbi encountered a gap - a question about Nighthawking, a niche topic - a contact centre manager simply uploaded an article within 15 minutes. Bobbi then knew about it.
The impact has been substantial. Thames Valley and Hampshire are seeing two to three high-risk events per day that come through Bobbi - incidents like a 16-year-old witnessing domestic violence who couldn't safely call 999 but used Bobbi. The agent identified the potential harm and routed it to digital desk operators, who got police out and de-escalated within ten minutes. If Bobbi hadn't existed, that crime would never have been reported.
From a cost perspective: a 999 or 101 call costs £7.90. An email costs £3.50. A web chat costs £2.63. Agent Force costs 24p.
Scaling to Justice
Crizel Castro (Lead Solution Engineer at Salesforce) expanded the vision beyond policing. They've built Agent Juris, a similar model for the justice system. The scenario was concrete: someone called Sean has received a summons for Crown Court, has never navigated the justice system before, and is highly anxious. Instead of being left in the dark during case backlogs, Sean gets a citizen hub showing his case details, timeline, and court information. Embedded within it is Agent Juris, helping him understand the process, answer questions about expenses, and navigate throughout.
The principle is the same across both agents: reduce administrative friction, maintain human connection where it matters, provide citizens with a single view of information they need.
What This Actually Means
Both Emily and Crizel emphasised the human element. Bobbi wasn't designed to replace human judgment or reduce staffing. It freed contact centre staff from hoping their next call wasn't an emergency. Now they get flagged alerts when Bobbi identifies risk, with full chat transcripts and context, so handoffs are warm and re-traumatisation doesn't occur. Officers can concentrate on the 25% of cases that are genuinely high-harm.
Jessica Kimbell, GovNet
