The UK police landscape has undergone the most fundamental change ever. The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), the creation of the National Crime Agency, the College of Policing and Police IT Company all fundamentally change the dynamics of policing.
Added to this ACPO’s future was the subject of an independent report earlier this year, conducted by the highly respected General Sir Nick Parker and delivered to the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners. General Parker made some very insightful and interesting recommendations about ACPO, including looking at the future of the ACPO national units and how they are administered, and also in relation to ACPO’s role as the voice of operational police leadership.
Police forces across England and Wales had risen to the financial challenge of the spending review, cutting their spending while largely maintaining the service they provide to the public. Over the next two years PCCs and Chief Constables will need to think very differently to drive out further savings. Many forces are now looking at Digital Solutions.
Our work leading the Change Portfolio at the College of Policing gave DigitalFirst an opportunity to be at the forefront of the work to define standards and best practice in Digital Policing, this required a great deal of research into the future operational and support needs of UK Policing as a whole.
Implementing new Digitally disruptive models in force can often mean utilising IT in a way that changes the business:
- With enhanced Records Management
- Support to Crime Investigation
- Multi-agency information sharing
- Using technology in Dispatch
- Crime analysis and crime mapping
- In field use of mobile devices
- Use of social media to support communication with citizens and better intelligence gathering
- Use of body worn cameras
- Using software to carry-out real time analysis of crowd movements
- Police cars have complex sensor systems in place
- Several police forces are using small, lightweight drones as a cheap alternative to police helicopters.
DigitalFirst provides consultancy services that support UK policing on their Digital Journey.
We are also assisting the Metropolitan Police in building a business case to understand the potential benefits and savings that can be achieved through moving back office corporate services to a shared service arrangement.
