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West Midlands Police relied on inaccurate intelligence generated by Microsoft Copilot to justify banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from an Aston Villa match in November 2025. The intelligence included a fictitious match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham United. The Chief Constable initially denied the use of AI but later apologized after an inspection revealed the error was an 'AI hallucination' used in a report to the security advisory group.
West Midlands Police reportedly included inaccurate intelligence purportedly generated using Microsoft Copilot in materials used to justify banning Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending a November 2025 Europa League match against Aston Villa. The reported Copilot-linked error, which referred to a match that had not taken place, was later acknowledged by Chief Constable Craig Guildford.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
Also classified as
Police officers over-relied on the unverified output of a general-purpose AI tool for critical public safety and intelligence reporting.
The AI system generated a completely fictitious football match (an AI hallucination), which misled police officers and led to the decision to ban away fans based on false information.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident was caused by an AI hallucination from Microsoft Copilot, which unintentionally generated a fictitious football match that was then relied upon post-deployment.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Epistemic Harm, Indirect)
A West Midlands Police officer used Microsoft Copilot to gather intelligence for a football match report, resulting in an AI hallucination of a fictitious match. This false intelligence led to banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and caused the Chief Constable to unwittingly mislead a parliamentary committee. While not a hostile attack, it highlights operational vulnerabilities in public sector AI integration.
The report describes Microsoft Copilot being used as a search tool by an individual officer to gather intelligence. It acted as an assistant to retrieve information, but the output required human validation and oversight, which was unfortunately bypassed.
Limited Risk: The system involved is Microsoft Copilot, a general-purpose AI search assistant and chatbot, which falls under the category of AI systems requiring transparency about their nature.
The AI system was used by a police officer to conduct a search and gather intelligence about previous football matches, which is a Content Search and Question Answering function.
The reports provide clear, official details from a formal inspection by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary. The role of Microsoft Copilot in generating the hallucinated match is explicitly confirmed by a police interviewee, and the Chief Constable publicly apologized for the error, leaving very little ambiguity about the AI's role and the resulting decision.
None. The facts of the AI hallucination and its inclusion in the report are well-established.
Technology
AI Hallucination in Copilot
Microsoft Copilot generated a fictitious match between Maccabi and West Ham.
Unreliable AI Search Tool
Copilot was used as a search tool but produced false historical records.
Data Inputs
Unverified External Sources
Information from Dutch police and other sources was conflated or unverified.
Lack of Data Validation
AI-generated search results were not verified against official records.
Human Factors
Confirmation Bias
Officers accepted false data that supported their preferred tactical option.
Overreliance on AI Output
An individual accepted Copilot's hallucination without manual verification.
Misleading Public Statements
Senior leadership made incorrect statements regarding AI use to MPs.
Process and Methods
Bypassing Intelligence Structure
Intelligence report did not pass through the dedicated validation structure.
Exclusion of Intelligence Commander
The intelligence bronze commander was not involved in preparing the report.
Poor Record Keeping
Handwritten notes of key meetings were disposed of instead of being retained.
Management
Weak Strategic Oversight
Senior levels failed to apply strategic oversight to the planning process.
Failure to Declare Critical Incident
Commanders did not declare a critical incident despite rising public concern.
Lack of Proactive Briefings
Management failed to proactively brief the Police and Crime Commissioner.
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
