Pushing up productivity levels in policing

Across the public sector, efficiency and value-for-money are now number one requirements when looking to source new technology, platforms, and solutions.

As the Government battles with tough economic headwinds, getting more out of less is a priority for experts across the civil service. They are continually on the lookout for dependable and consistent levels of service from trusted suppliers with Ministers relying on their knowledge, advice, and research to make tough decisions.

Amid a surge in digital transformation within national, regional, and local government – as well as across all public sector bodies and organisations – there is a growing need for clearer information on, and a simpler understanding of, how technology can drive productivity.

This has become particularly important within the UK’s police services. There is now a strategic policy priority to ensure improvements in the nationwide safety of the public and crime reduction through the implementation of technology.

At Zebra, we are experts in working with emergency services across the globe on finding the best fit between technology and policy. From our conversations with those across the UK policing hierarchy, we understand that finding the right solution isn’t straightforward. But that doesn’t mean it has to be scary either.

The initial expenditure on such transformational projects can be high. But when the proposal is right, a focus on an initial front-end figure should be seen as less important than identifying the return on investment over time.

It is certain that leaderships within policing would prefer to know what they are buying will have a long-term lifecycle, be easily upgraded, and provide structural rigidity and longevity of infrastructure.

One-off cost

This viewpoint might come into conflict with necessity and speed. But buying consumer devices – while perhaps cheaper at the start – can prove far more costly in the years ahead due to additional (and often unplanned for) expenditure on software upgrades and maintenance.

With Zebra, a one-off cost upfront covers all updates throughout the life of a product and trust is a key factor why this is the case. Impulse purchases made to fill gaps and meet a pressing and specific problem can lead to much waste.

This can be a waste of money, waste of time, waste of resources, and waste of equipment, the latter making a big and negative impact on sustainability targets.

Trust is crucial because together police leaderships working with the right partner can create a roadmap that considers all the changes to the policing landscape ahead. This prevents financial exposure mounting up considerably.

It also ensures the right technology arrives at the right time. Hierarchies have to be geared up for any change ahead; they have to implement it when they know it will receive the biggest buy-in from everyone across all areas of their operations.

Zebra’s data and experience can assist policing leaderships to make better, more consistent, and much more impactful decisions – especially when any implementation involves a large volume of devices.

Reliability and interoperability

The reliability of devices out in the field is also critical in ensuring policing leaderships meet targets set at a national level while also meeting the aims and priorities of their regional Police and Crime Commissioners.

Often the initial starting point is that having more officers is integral to achieving such success, but how effective is having thousands of new officers unless they have the most future-proofed equipment possible within their toolkits.

In the same way you wouldn’t send an officer out without a radio and baton, you shouldn’t send them out into the field without the right technological back-up.

The right solutions help officers to do more with less and to do it faster. This not only contributes to a reduction in crime and increases in convictions, but it also returns time back to the officers’ day.

Being able to write reports while out in the field, rather than having to return to the station to do so, injects more capacity into an already stretched system.

Policing is fundamentally different now to 20 years ago. To succeed, it must be a far more connected service nationally than ever before. Individual services already come together in clusters, often for large-scale procurement, so sharing systems that talk to each other is massively important.

Trusted partner

Working with a trusted partner such as Zebra means you don’t have to be particularly tech savvy to see the positives or understand the frontline benefits. Your partner is accountable for finding and explaining the best solution, delivering it, and monitoring its long-term use.

At Zebra, our role is to work with our partners in policing by understanding their priorities. Our technology then fits that puzzle, rather than us adding additional confusion from the start by presenting a list of devices leaderships won’t recognise or immediately understand the possibilities of.

It is certain that younger officers will increasingly demand enterprise technology in their day-to-day working lives; technology that works like the consumer devices they are using personally.

The right enterprise solutions are out there to meet their demands and as UK policing leaderships develop police and crime plans, all decision-makers must be willing to examine three key factors:

• How technology can reduce pressures
• How technology can deliver capacity
• How technology can push up productivity

The answers are out there. The solutions are within reach. The possibilities for improvement to policing frontlines, and in back-office roles, are endless.