How are funding issues holding back the deployment of new police tech?

There are other problems holding police forces back from digital progress:

• Complicated procurement means buying new tech isn’t easy. Suppliers, especially smaller firms, say the process is often way too complicated and drawn out.
• Unstable funding and short-term planning have meant there might be initial funds to start new projects but there’s often not enough money to scale up or ensure effective post-implementation.
• Misunderstandings about tech ROI have led to the misconception that investing in tech will be high cost with low return on investment. Yet tech investment is actually a critical pathway to more efficient, effective policing.
• The shadow of past IT failures has made funding new tech initiatives much tougher. Finding the money has always been hard, but decision-makers are now even more cautious since significant delays and overspend around programmes such as the Emergency Services Network (ESN) and The Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS).

On that last point above and as you no doubt already know, in 2015 the Home Office launched the ESN programme. It was designed to replace Airwave as the main field and control room communications system for 108 police, fire and ambulance services across the UK.

Beset by setbacks such as concerns that new ESN technology won’t work at scale, the Home Office spent £2 billion on ESN and another £2 billion on running Airwave between April 2015 and March 2023 alone.

The initiative continues to this day and has become a textbook example of how not to run an IT project. The target delivery date has recently been reset to 2029!

Tough problems for sure. But not insurmountable.

Here are just four things that can be done:

1. Focus on what your force needs. Instead of making decisions based on external pressures or the need to save money, your force needs to invest in programmes that meet real operational needs and generate meaningful and sustainable service improvements.
2. Try off-the-shelf solutions. Commercially available tech can often provide all the functionality police services need at a fraction of the cost of bespoke. By adapting the way they work and going off-the-shelf, you could see a host of benefits like ongoing support and regular system updates. Initial investment costs come down too, as well as the cost of long-term maintenance.
3. Invest in national procurement. National procurement can give buying power a real boost and encourage different forces to try new tech, especially smaller departments who might otherwise be priced out. Knowledge sharing and standardisation is improved too, which helps coordination between forces and cuts training costs.
4. Simplify procurement. By using a national framework with pre-approved products, procurement can be made far more straightforward, cutting admin costs and giving a boost to new tech adoption. Departments can then focus on implementation and training rather than working their way through endless procurement processes.

1. Rick Muir : The Power of Information. How to unlock the potential of digital, data and technology in policing
2. Rick Muir : The Power of Information. How to unlock the potential of digital, data and technology in policing
3. Rick Muir : The Power of Information. How to unlock the potential of digital, data and technology in policing