Forces Need Investment In Technology To Improve Productivity

Police forces need the best technology in order to improve productivity, but that means more investment, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

The third and final Policing Productivity Review report has just been submitted to the Home Secretary, in which its authors make 61 recommendations that they say could free-up 61 million policing hours over five years.

That is the equivalent of adding more than 30,000 people into policing. The authors of the report insist that the recommended actions will improve outcomes in police investigations, strengthen neighbourhood policing, and ease the burden of forensic accreditation.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield said she would be happy to see more technological advances in policing, but that the money needed to be found to make it happen.

She said: “I know our force is looking at IT changes that could be made, because we have two different computer systems that don’t talk to each other, so you have to go onto one to do one thing, something else to do another one.

“The bureaucracy around our crime recording is ridiculous. Lots of hours could be saved there, definitely. The IT is available, it’s out there, but you need the investment to give it to police officers.

“Years ago, if you went to an incident where nothing happened you’d make a note in your pocket notebook that you attended this address and there was nothing for the police to do. Whereas now you have to log onto the computer and you have to complete forms, even for an incident where nothing has happened and it’s not going anywhere. It probably takes an officer half an hour just to write up a job that’s not going anywhere.”

Zoë added: “For a while we had mobile fingerprint scanners so we could check people’s identity on the street. That technology exists, but it’s not readily available to police officers out on the street every day. I think there is a lot that could be done to free up officers’ time, but again it needs money.”