Athena leads projects receiving government funding for innovation
The Home Office has awarded millions of pounds to forces across the country to fund innovative, collaborative projects, including nearly £5 million to a seven-force initiative to share information and intelligence across boundaries.
The Home Office has awarded millions of pounds to forces across the country to fund innovative, collaborative projects, including nearly £5 million to a seven-force initiative to share information and intelligence across boundaries.
Each of the 71 successful police bids received a share of £70 million as part of the Police Innovation Fund, which is expected to deliver long-term savings and help forces meet budget cuts in the coming years.
The bids, which consisted of internal force projects and collaboration with other forces and private partners, saw seven forces Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk receive £4.9 million to go towards a collaborative technology project called Athena, working with Northgate Public Services.
The new arrangements, which went live on March 31, are part of the largest-ever collaboration project to implement a single IT system and will join up crime and investigation management, intelligence, custody management and case preparation.
Julia Wortley, assistant chief constable of Essex Police, the lead force for Athena, said: Athena is the most ambitious integrated technology initiative since the introduction of the Police National Computer, and I am proud that Essex Police is at the forefront of this important and innovative work.
As with any large-scale change programme, there will be a steep learning curve, but the potential benefits are huge in terms of protecting our communities and delivering effective, efficient and modern policing.
Athena provides joined-up IT for joined-up policing in the 21st century. It is essential that we provide our police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and police staff with the best possible tools to enable them to deliver the best possible service.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was awarded £300,000 to produce the worlds first system to instantly compare a suspects footwear with shoe marks left at crime scenes, as well as for its Police Now recruitment scheme, which attracts talented graduates to careers in the police.
Other successful bids, from a total of 166 submissions for funding, include:
£250,000 to Surrey Police and Sussex Police to pilot the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in a range of policing situations. This is expected to build on the work of a trial project at Gatwick that found the technology offered significant benefits to the police;
£360,000 to Merseyside Police to use new digital biometric technology and a tried-and-tested digital record management system to create a paperless bail system in police stations;
£300,000 to the Minerva collaboration between 18 forces, led by Sussex Police, aimed at improving flexibility and choice around police IT; and
£896,000 to the 24-force eCommerce for Policing Programme, led by Hampshire Constabulary.
The Police Innovation Fund allocated £50 million to forces in England and Wales in 2014/15, following an initial £20 million from a precursor fund.
Forces estimate that projects supported by the fund so far will have saved taxpayers almost £250 million once they have been up and running for five years.
For full details of successful bids see www.policeprofessional.com
£1.1m investment to digitise criminal justice in Sussex see p24.