The Home Secretary has announced plans to deliver major policing reforms, including:
- A new Police Performance Unit to track national data on local performance.
- A Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to encourage a “back to basics” approach.
- A new National Centre of Policing to harness new technology and forensics and ensure that policing is better equipped to meet the changing nature of crime. Its scope will include forensics, aviation, and IT.
This got me thinking. How will this affect the policing technology in the UK?
Policing technology in the UK
The Home Secretary said that the government believe that “national arrangements on procurement” will also generate savings to reinvest into frontline policing.” That makes sense. By pooling purchasing power, one could argue that purchasing some technology solutions via national procurement could help negotiate better commercial deals, driving down the cost of technology for individual forces. These savings could then be reinvested into further technological advancements and improved policing services at the local level.
One advantage to this national procurement approach, is that some technology solutions could be identified as a nation-wide solution. This could significantly improve interoperability and data sharing across policing systems. That would be welcome. One of the biggest challenges in the sector is the lack of integration between the different systems used by various forces. This creates inefficiencies and, at times, even risks public safety.
If purchasing were more standardised, with a strong emphasis on only selecting technologies that conform to the policing industry’s interoperability pledge, we could see a future where systems seamlessly work together. By aligning with these interoperability standards, we could eliminate many of the barriers that prevent forces from sharing data and resources effectively.
Driving better decisions and a common approach
The Home Secretary’s announcement is a change in direction. Previous Home Secretaries championed a local approach. Consequently, every police force has an established strategic direction they have deliberately steered their technology towards. For a national arrangement to work, each force would need to follow a shared agenda to some extent. This could be complex. Each police force operates their own budget, and they all have their own levels of budgetary constraints. Some have more financial wriggle room than others. They certainly all have different arrangements in place for legacy systems. And they are tied into independent contractual agreements, resulting in differing durations and terms, and further complicating efforts to standardise or align systems.
Consequently, we have a patchwork of technologies being deployed across the country.
More questions than answers?
When it comes to the Home Secretary’s major policy reforms, a few questions naturally arise:
- Will there be a single focus point for making decisions and setting direction?
- Could this political desire trigger the mandated use of specific systems across forces?
- Will there be guidance or stricter regulations around the capabilities of non-mandated systems?
- And how could technologies used within policing align with the industry’s charter pledge for interoperability?
I will answer these questions and more in the following blogs.
Let me know your thoughts. I am keen to hear feedback from the policing technology community. How do you think the Home Secretary’s plans will change the policing technology landscape? And what do you think policing should be doing already?
If you have a question for Jon or the Triad team, please get in touch.
