Contact management/command and control

INNOVATION: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the third in the Policing Tech Forum series of webinars produced by PolicingTV, Ch Supt Tony Josephs, NPCC Digital Public Contact Programme Director, Tony Jackson, Head of Digital Futures at Merseyside Police, and Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO of Content Guru, explored opportunities to enhance the public experience through the My Police Portal and other technology, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the second in a series of police technology webinars produced by PolicingTV, NPCC Digital Public Contact Programme Social Media lead Patrick Robins and Digital Youth Engagement lead Alex Finn, and TOEX and CSE Taskforce Communications lead Natalie Reed, explored the benefits and risks of policing’s social media participation, and the challenges around engaging young people.

FEATURE: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the first in a new series of police technology webinars produced by PolicingTV, Digital Public Contact Programme SRO DCC Simon Megicks, NPCC National Contact Management lead ACC Catherine Akehurst, and Simon Hall, Chair of techUK’s Justice and Emergency Service Interoperability Forum, shared their views on the importance of closer working between forces, budget challenges, and the potential for more effective data sharing.

FEATURE: A recent evaluation of the roll out of the ‘Right Care, Right Person’ approach to responding to mental health crises has identified savings in police time allowing forces to free up resources for other priorities – but challenges around decision-making, communications, and the funding and capacity constraints for other agencies are also hampering the effective implementation of the scheme across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: A Dorset Police trial which expanded the video response approach used with domestic abuse cases to a wider range of calls and crimes has seen significant increases in arrest rates, positive outcomes and satisfaction levels for victims, and potential savings of £1.5million; now the approach could be expanded across the whole county and shared with other forces, as Supt Stewart Gates explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: As public services come under pressure and public expectations rise, volumes of contact are likely to increase across all channels. By operationalising digital contact, forces can avoid a contact crisis and take advantage of a more connected future.

OPINION: Recent reports of a rise in violent offences in Scotland against an apparent backdrop of record low crime rates support the suggestion that the country’s real crime figures are much higher than acknowledged, argues former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher, and – added to inefficiencies in the courts, falling officer numbers and an overflowing prison estate – could see the problems facing the Scottish criminal justice system turn into a crisis.

INNOVATION: A portal developed in Humberside that allows victims to contact officers in charge of their case for updates rather than tie-up call handlers on force phone lines is also helping to provide a better service, according to those behind the plan; Ian Weinfass spoke to Humberside Police’s Scot Dunn and senior responsible officer for the NPCC’s digital public contact programme, DCC Simon Megicks, about the award-winning initiative.

WEBINAR PROMOTION: The Policing Tech Forum, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and techUK, are delighted to announce our inaugural series of webinars looking at the current and future direction of technology across the policing family.

INNOVATION: Social media contacts with police forces soared during the disorder in England and Northern Ireland in the summer of 2024; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass looks at the role digi desks played during the crisis, and examines how useful they are for day-to-day operations.

FEATURE: After its introduction by Humberside Police, the mental health policing approach Right Care, Right Person has been rolled out nationally in England and Wales; but a new announcement from New Zealand Police – a four-phase plan to reduce mental health demand on frontline officers and encourage health partners to take more of a lead – suggests it’s changing international practice too, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INNOVATION: A successful pilot project using artificial intelligence to support call handlers answering domestic abuse calls in Humberside Police – which increased both officer and public safety, improved evidence and reduced staff stress – could now be applied to other crime types within the force as well as being scaled up nationally, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: With the opportunities offered to policing by artificial intelligence (AI) a key conversation at the recent Cumberland Lodge Police Conference, Martin Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive of Content Guru, explores the potential for AI to enhance the delivery of services by policing, and the importance of reframing and redefining the debate around this new technology.

ANALYSIS: The State of Policing: Annual Assessment 2023, published by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke, has found that the failure of forces in England and Wales to “get the basics right” is continuing to damage trust and confidence in the service, while “unacceptably high” workloads, significant levels of inexperience among officers, and an “outdated and unfair” funding formula are adding to the policing challenges, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: A new UK report by the Society of Editors, the Crime Reporters Association and the Media Lawyers Association has called on the police and press to work on rebuilding their “broken” relationship for the benefit of transparency, trust and confidence, while also warning that social media posts which often dominate high-profile investigations and court cases are in danger of being “weaponised”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Cityforum’s Transforming Police Public Contact roundtable that took place earlier this year saw representatives from policing, government, academia and industry follow up from the 2023 event to once again debate the key issues around police public contact; this article by Nick Gargan, based on his report of the roundtable, brings together the key contributions and perspectives from the event.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Discover how policing can drive innovation in public contact management. This article explores key principles from the National Contact Management Strategy and shares insights from Salesforce’s engagement with police forces, focusing on effective channel management and improving citizen interactions.

OPINION: Martin Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive of Content Guru, reflects on the forthcoming local and national elections, which will have a profound effect on policing, arguing that for policing to transform, it needs to look forward as well as back – and that investment in people will not deliver the change that is required unless it is matched by investment in technology.

FEATURE: GardaSAFE, the new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system rolled out by An Garda Síochána, has been described by senior officers as “far and away better” than previous systems, and praised for delivering “continuous improvement”; but a recent report raised concerns that a review of the system was not able to monitor live calls because of data privacy fears, an approach which the review team described as “retrograde and risk averse”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: When Italy's Carabinieri needed to modernise and upgrade 114 major control rooms and 400 smaller control rooms across the country, NICE Inform was the only solution they and their project partners Recording Enterprise Solutions could trust with a project of this scale and complexity.

OPINION: When a social media post earlier this month announced Met Police Commander Karen Findlay as the new Assistant Chief Constable of the British Transport Police, the response included a barrage of misogynistic and homophobic comments that drew strong criticism from the leaders of both forces and many other senior officers; former police officer Oliver Laurence, now host of the Protect and Serve podcast, believes more could and should be done to protect officers from online abuse.

OPINION: The ‘New Met for London’ plan is an ambitious turnaround framework for the UK’s largest force, in the wake of a series of critical reports and concerns around performance and public confidence; but former police officer Oliver Laurence, now a consultant and host of the Protect and Serve podcast, fears that poor communications – both internal and external – could derail the plan before it has chance to make real progress.

OPINION: The proposed closure of 29 police stations in Scotland is symptomatic of a wider problem in UK policing’s role and relationship with the community, believes former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher – one which will require innovative thinking coupled with a refocusing on policing’s core functions if it is to be successfully addressed.

FEATURE: An autism passport scheme flags specific issues for individuals – both things that can help interaction, and things that can cause anxiety or stress – on the Guernsey Police records management system, raising real-time warnings and markers for control room operators and responding officers and improving outcomes for all involved, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.