Crime Checker publishes its responsible AI framework for free criminal information tools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — 8 July 2026

England and Wales — Crime Checker, the free AI tool at crimechecker.co.uk, has published its responsible AI framework, setting out the five principles it applies to every result generated by the tool.

Criminal law is a high-stakes domain. An incorrect or overconfident AI output on a legal matter can cause real harm — from a person pleading guilty to an offence they could have defended, to someone failing to seek urgent legal help because a tool told them the matter was minor. The framework describes how Crime Checker is designed to minimise those risks.

The five principles

1. General information only — never legal advice. Every result produced by Crime Checker is accompanied by a clear statement that the output is general information based on publicly available sources. The tool cannot assess the specific facts of any case, the credibility of any witness, or the discretion of any court. Users are directed to a qualified solicitor for any decision that affects their legal position.

2. Source transparency on every output. Crime Checker discloses the primary sources behind every result — typically Sentencing Council guidelines, Magistrates' Court Sentencing Guidelines and Crown Prosecution Service charging guidance. Where a result draws on established case law or secondary sources, these are noted.

3. Mandatory abstention when confidence is insufficient. If the AI cannot produce a result with sufficient confidence — because the matter is too complex, falls outside the jurisdictions covered, or cannot be classified from the information given — the tool returns an abstain result rather than a low-confidence guess. An abstain result directs the user immediately to professional advice and provides information on duty solicitor rights and legal aid eligibility.

4. No data retention. User inputs and results are not stored or retained after the session ends. The tool does not require registration and collects no personally identifiable information.

5. Scotland and Northern Ireland excluded. Crime Checker covers England and Wales only. Scotland operates under Scots law with different offences, procedures and sentencing. Northern Ireland has its own justice system. The tool declines to produce results for matters outside England and Wales rather than producing potentially misleading cross-jurisdiction outputs.

Who the framework is for

The framework is published for the benefit of users who want to understand how the tool works before relying on its output, for journalists and researchers covering AI in legal contexts, and for solicitors whose clients may have consulted the tool before seeking professional advice.

Crime Checker does not claim that its responsible AI framework eliminates the risk of error. All AI systems can be wrong, and this one is no exception. The framework is designed to make errors less likely and to ensure that, when they occur, the consequences are minimised by the tool's consistent direction of users to professional advice.

"We built Crime Checker to give people accurate general information at a moment when they're frightened and don't know what they're facing. The responsible AI framework isn't a marketing document — it's the set of constraints we actually built into the system to make sure the tool helps more often than it harms. The abstention mechanism in particular was important to us: a tool that guesses when it shouldn't know is more dangerous than one that says it doesn't know."

— Crime Checker spokesperson

About Crime Checker

Crime Checker is a free AI tool that explains likely criminal offences, court routes, possible outcomes, sentence risk and next steps for matters in England and Wales. It provides general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice. Crime Checker is a product of Zayn Productions Ltd, registered in England and Wales (company no. 16892199), 1 Alvin Street, Gloucester GL1 3EJ.

Press contact: hello@zaynit.com · crimechecker.co.uk