As new Minister for Policing and Crime Sarah Jones stressed in her speech to the Annual Police Superintendents’ Association Conference this September, policing is at the heart of our national life. As the former Minister of State for Industry, Sarah Jones brings a strong understanding of the security and policing sectors to her new role, having seen first-hand the value and impact our industries deliver. A Police Reform White Paper, announced last autumn and promised for this one, is set to strengthen that mission with the reforms and resources that our police forces need to tackle ongoing challenges. In parallel, ADS has been consulting with industry to inform its response to the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry on police productivity.
The recent rise in crime can largely be attributed to the growth of cyber-enabled fraud and high street offences such as phone snatching and shoplifting. While high street crime is more visible and brings public safety to the forefront of the political agenda, both types of crime affect people and businesses daily. They are excellent indicators of the huge challenges that our police forces face: creating a high volume of offenses to follow up on and clogging law enforcement systems with repetitive tasks that could be partly or fully automated with the right technology solutions. Although tackling online fraud offences is often limited because they occur across jurisdictions, solutions exist to bring their numbers down.
Limitations in capacity and capability combined with surges in demand have caused police performance to stagnate through no fault of the officers or organisation themselves. Police forces are overstretched by the wide range of time-consuming tasks. As budgets are squeezed, technology and training can provide better value for money by boosting productivity and restoring confidence in our model of policing by consent.
Leveraging technology
The UK’s security and resilience sector is well-placed to understand, react to, and exploit new advancements in technology, both in the digital and physical spheres, to address modern law enforcement challenges.
Technology can be used as a productivity multiplier by significantly reducing the time required, for instance, to sift through and analyse large amounts of data, provide forecasting, and complete administrative forms. This would reduce bureaucracy and allow police forces to either cut costs or refocus officers on top priorities. Technology can also have a deterrent effect on crime itself. CCTV, facial recognition and high footfall screening systems can all help reduce the opportunities for crime and increase the certainty of being caught and brought to justice. These solutions also protect people, property, and drive up protective security standards in publicly accessible locations.
We have consistently called for a much-needed technology overhaul of police IT systems drawing on our members’ expertise to highlight the benefits of integrated solutions. Proper consideration now needs to be given to creating a unified database housing all intelligence reports, crime reports, and custody records, enabled by a less risk-averse attitude to IT procurement in general. The workforce will need to be equipped with the right skillsets to operate advanced digital systems effectively and keep up with the evolving nature of crime. This requires specialist skills for complex areas, especially cyber skills like digital forensics and investigation, as well as improved training and continuous professional development.
Improving leadership and industry partnerships
While technology and training solutions from the security sector can streamline tasks, multiply productivity, and ensure data sharing across forces, system inefficiencies can only be designed out through a broader reform of the current structure of policing in the UK. The 43 police forces model leads to fragmented procurement, delays in reforming backend systems, and reduced agility and coordination in tackling novel forms of crime. We suggest that the White Paper should consider establishing a stronger strategic centre, which would oversee procurement management and system stewardship functions such as national IT infrastructure.
The reorganisation of policing and the centralisation of procurement will require a stronger partnership with the private sector. Pre-procurement market engagement with suppliers is essential to ensure that our police forces have the necessary capabilities to respond to the evolving nature of crime. Supporting the innovation pipeline is equally important and should be encouraged by communicating clear needs and requirements to industry. Establishing industry secondments into the police could develop the benefits of public-private partnership further by embedding specialist expertise directly into frontline policing.
Lastly, efficiencies gained in policing can only be made sustainable if they are followed up with parallel reforms across the entire public safety system, including to the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and HM Prison and Probation Service. These should focus on rolling out the digitisation of courts, tribunals, and criminal courts’ services, and establishing common case management platforms.
Conclusion
The need for reform is agreed among police forces, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and political decision-makers. What we need, however, is clarity of ambition on what HMG priorities are. Given the range of objectives on Safer Streets, broader types of crime, and the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, all in a context of budget cuts to the Home Office, the White Paper should be unapologetic about establishing priorities and clarify what the end state of its vision for UK policing is.
HMG will have to make difficult decisions about police procurement and organisational reforms that can deliver on its manifesto promises while keeping in line with limited budgets. In doing so, it will probably consider which changes would lead to results most immediately visible to the public. However, a more mature narrative around policing that radically improves its less visible but equally important functions would be a better approach. ADS aims to ensure that the sector’s capabilities are fully leveraged to meet evolving challenges, supporting strategic partnerships between public and private suppliers of security services and enabling a whole-system approach that secures public confidence.
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