ICT

INNOVATION: Policing faces some growing challenges around the volume and security of digital, and has been encouraged to migrate to the cloud as part of the UK Government’s Cloud First strategy; but police technology advisor Paul Kennedy, and Kate Steele, UKI Head of Public Services for Lenovo Infrastructure, believe an alternative approach focusing on infrastructure as a service could deliver greater efficiency and security as well as potential cost savings.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are delivering benefits in analysing huge volumes of historic data across both the private and public sector, but their use in real-time situations has been more limited; Hexagon Director Nick Chorley spoke to Policing Insight about the opportunities for greater use to assist live command and control decision making, and the importance of allaying fears over ‘big brother’ approaches and potential bias.

INNOVATION: A new set of simple digital tools used to arrange police interviews and organise officer appearances in court are now being rolled out to forces across England and Wales by the Police Digital Service; although still in the early stages, it’s been estimated that the Video Enabled Policing programme could save more than £60m a year and free officers up to handle more complex tasks, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: “We’re now seeing cases move in hours instead of weeks and months.” Axon is accelerating justice as Scotland’s Digital Evidence Sharing Capability system will now allow police, lawyers & courts access to a unified database nationally, reducing burdens on victims and freeing up officer time to focus on frontline police work.

FEATURE: As specialists and stakeholders from the UK public safety communications sector gather for this week’s BAPCO annual conference and exhibition, PoliceBox CEO Simon Hall highlights the importance of interoperability in police IT systems, and explores whether ‘Integration Platform as a Service’ products could finally provide the solution to greater co-operation and collaboration.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: For over 30 years policing has followed a model of ‘siloed’ digital solutions, with frontline staff reliant on a variety of products from multiple vendors. Today’s connected officer can now tap into a huge range of apps and information via a single integrated interface on their mobile device. In the first in a series of articles, Ian Williams outlines the workflow efficiency benefits of Motorola Solutions’ Pronto digital policing platform.

INNOVATION: A 12-month trial which allows officers from Queensland Police Service to use body-worn cameras to record interviews with domestic violence victims that can then be used as evidence-in-chief has been hailed a success for reducing the trauma experienced by victim-survivors and enabling officers to re-invest more time providing support, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Learn how Cumbria Constabulary empowers their force to reduce costs and boost efficiency with Axon technologies. By collecting and managing evidence with digital tools, Cumbria officers are better able to focus on what brought them to the force to begin with – being in the community.

FEATURE: After the recent bruising inspectorate assessment of digital forensics across England and Wales, the development of a new fingerprint capability – rolling out in the East Midlands from next month – offers a more positive story; this new digital tool, developed through Transforming Forensics, could speed up investigations, improve standards, and show the value of collaboration, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INNOVATION: With terrorism moving increasingly online, the use of steganography – embedding potentially dangerous data inside seemingly innocent files – is becoming a growing concern for law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at this new technology being adopted by terrorist organisations, and the efforts being made to counter their activity.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Amid growing demand and tighter budgetary constraints, police and other bluelight services are under increased pressure to do more with less, particularly by making more effective use of technology; Hexagon Director Nick Chorley spoke to Policing Insight about the potential benefits – for service delivery, citizens and staff – of digital transformation, as well as some of the challenges that journey presents.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The complexity of policing challenges is ever-evolving. In this article, we discuss how we made strides, with your feedback, to strengthen the Axon ecosystem in 2022 to help solve pain points and offer better support for positive policing outcomes.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Ensuring a safe community and supporting victims of crimes are core missions of Merseyside Police. But as digital evidence continued to grow, Merseyside Police’s investigative resources were stretched to the limit. The force found a solution to all of these challenges in NICE Investigate. NICE Investigate collapses Merseyside’s digital evidence silos into a single login, so investigators can do all of their work in one place, and it eliminates long wait times for evidence. Now, cases can be resolved successfully and sooner.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: London’s Metropolitan Police Service now shares 600% more digital evidence with the CPS than in initial rollout. Learn how Axon Evidence helps facilitate efficient sharing for faster investigations.

ADVERTISMENT FEATURE: The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) oversees the police complaints system in England and Wales. They investigate the most serious matters, including deaths following police contact, and set the standards by which the police should handle complaints. The IOPC wanted to make it as easy and seamless as possible for police forces to share information and evidence with IOPC investigators. To address this and other challenges, the IOPC implemented NICE Investigate.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: In August 2021 HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published a report in response to the super-complaint submitted by the Centre for Women’s Justice on the police use of protective measures in cases involving violence against women and girls (VAWG). Razi Hassan of the Domestic Abuse Alliance reviews the recommendations set out in the report and explains how the WEPROTECT instant victim referral service accelerates access to legal assistance and intervention.

OPINION: The ever-complex nature of policing continues to highlight the need for sharing and analysing data, with interoperability crucial to successful technological development; Sebastian Uhlig, Managing Consultant of Informed Solutions, explores the key ingredients required to ensure that digital transformation is accelerated and de-risked to improve the working lives of police officers, and enhance their service to the public.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Policing performance has never been under the microscope as much as it is now. There are some police forces that have been placed under special measures by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS). In reviewing these findings, we can identify common themes in each of the areas in which policing is still considered to be underperforming.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Recent studies of the use and impact of, for example, body-worn video (BWV) cameras, have produced inconclusive results, or the reporting is strictly quantitative – all about statistics and numbers, and less about the human experience of officers and the public. So we at Axon supported an independent study by Crest Advisory, a leading consultancy in the UK policing, justice and public safety sectors, to assess the impact of enabling technologies on Cumbria’s constabulary.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Integration and data are at the very core of Police work, ensuring information is accessible by the right people at the right time through the most appropriate channel. In this article we will discuss how Forces can unlock the power of their data to deliver key policing outcomes.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Policing is changing, and nearly every job now has a digital element attached to it. Like most police forces around the world, Nottinghamshire Police is experiencing a massive increase in digital evidence. To provide the best possible service to victims of crime, as well as businesses and communities, Nottinghamshire needed a better way to manage it. NICE Investigate is helping Nottinghamshire modernise its approach, to reduce the risk to victims and become a more efficient and agile force.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: What should your force expect from a digital evidence management system? Learn how evolving digital evidence management can tame the tidal wave of data and future-proof your organisation.

INNOVATION: Making better use of technology has been recognised as key to improving police performance for many years, but security concerns around the use of cloud computing have been a source of tension; Jon Graham, Business Development Manager at digital solutions specialist Triad, believes that by developing effective security-first cloud strategies, police forces could achieve significant benefits from a move to the ‘new emergent model’.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Until recently, UK police forces had to rely on manual processes to share digital evidence with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). This involved copying evidence onto CDs, DVDs, USB drives and paper files, and hand-delivering them to the CPS. Increased wait times for evidence in turn resulted in slower pre-charge and remand decisions. With new national requirements now mandating that all digital evidence be shared with the CPS electronically, many UK forces, including Leicestershire Police, are working with NICE to forge a better way.