Police to use drones as first responders under £230m Budget investment in ‘time saving technology’

Police will be encouraged to use drones as first responders in a £230 million investment in “time and money saving technology” for forces announced by the Chancellor in his Spring Budget.

Mar 7, 2024
By Paul Jacques

Jeremy Hunt said this would also include using video calls for people to report less-serious crimes to help speed up police response times.

In addition, the Chancellor also announced £75 million to roll out “the highly successful” violence reduction unit (VRU) model across England and Wales.

Presenting his Budget, Mr Hunt said: “Police officers waste around eight hours a week on unnecessary admin – with higher productivity, we could free-up time equivalent to 20,000 officers over a year.

“So we will spend £230million rolling out time and money saving technology which speeds up police response time by allowing people to report crimes by video call and where appropriate use drones as first responders.”

Alan Pughsley QPM, lead reviewer from the Policing Productivity Team, said: “We welcome the Government’s investment in policing technology as outlined today.

“We’re pleased the work of our independent team has highlighted the huge time savings that could be achieved through better use of technology; time that could be spent attending more burglaries, more cases of domestic abuse, more incidents of anti-social behaviour.

“The Policing Productivity Review has found that technology can enable the acceleration of existing tasks – such as redacting documents for use in court – and provide less resource-intensive ways of delivering services, for example by Rapid Video Response; something that has been well-received by victims of domestic abuse.

“Around 97 per cent of today’s science and technology investment in policing is spent on maintaining existing systems. There is a balance to be struck between ensuring these tools are fit for purpose and making the most of new innovations.

“Policing cannot afford to fall behind in this area which is why today’s funding announcement is so important.”

However, the Magistrates’ Association warned that boosting the efficiency of the police could result in higher arrest rates, “drawing more people into an already overburdened criminal justice system”.

The Chancellor confirmed that £170 million would be used to fund non-court resolution, reduce re-offending and digitising the court process.

But Tom Franklin, the chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said the Budget statement was, “once again, a missed opportunity”.

“While the extra money announced – as part of new plans for public sector productivity – is welcome, all parts of the justice system, from the provision of court legal advisers and probation officers, to the dire state of our court buildings, need considerable new investment if justice is to be served fairly and efficiently,” he said.

“And plans to boost the efficiency of the police may well result in higher arrest rates, drawing more people into our already overburdened criminal justice system without the resources needed to deal with them speedily.

“The justice system is creaking at the seams, and this includes magistrates’ courts, which hear over 90 per cent of all criminal cases. They have endured huge changes over the past decade, partly due to underfunding and cuts. In that time, half of all magistrates’ courts have closed and the number of magistrates has halved.

“Today’s news means that unfortunately, speedier justice for all – victims, witnesses and defendants – will be further delayed. Without properly investing in justice, a bad situation is going to get worse.”

Independent retailers welcomed the Chancellor’s promise of a multi-million investment to speed up police response times by allowing people to report crimes by video call and to use drones, where appropriate as first responders.

Muntazir Dipoti, the national president of the Federation of Independent Retailers, said: “Shoplifting and attacks on shop staff are at epidemic levels. According to latest figures, they have risen from 876 a day to a staggering 1,300 every day but we believe the true picture could be even greater because of the lack of faith in police response times.

“The news that more funds are being made available to make it easier to report crimes and to speed up police responses is, therefore, welcome.”

However, he said that Federation members were dismayed by the announcement of the vape tax, from October 2026 and following a public consultation, to discourage non-smokers from taking up vaping and a one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain “the financial incentive to choose vaping over smoking”.

Mr Dipoti warned that a vape levy would fuel the illicit market, “where there is no compliance to tobacco and vaping laws and where the products being peddled are likely to contain dangerous and illegal levels of toxic chemicals”.

Cigarettes were a valuable commodity, he said, adding that increasing the price of cigarettes would heighten the risk of theft and retail crime.

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) welcomed the announcement that the VRU model is set to be rolled out across England and Wales.

First announced in 2019, 20 VRUs have now been established, embedding a multi-agency public health approach to understanding the root causes of violence and bringing key organisations together at a local level to develop a coordinated and strategic response to drive down violence.

APCC serious violence leads, Cleveland PCC Steve Turner and West Midlands PCC Simon Foster, said: “We have long been advocates of the vital work done by VRUs to tackle violent crime and are in full support of the plan to roll them out nationally.

“Partnership working and preventative activity lie at the core of the PCC role and a wider rollout of VRUs will greatly enhance local capability to divert young people away from serious crime and build our understanding of serious violence at a national level.

“In light of this announcement we would like to firmly reiterate the importance of adequate multi-year funding in order to implement long-term, sustainable solutions to tackle serious violence.

“We look forward to a national and joined-up effort to integrate established systems and learnings from existing VRUs in the implementation of the new units across England and Wales.”

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