Can a more centralised approach to technology deliver better outcomes for frontline officers?

A new, centralised National Police Service will be charged with developing and deploying the latest technology to fight the most complex cross-border crime, freeing up officers to tackle everyday crime in their communities. These ambitious plans have the potential to deliver significantly better outcomes for officers and the public they serve.

First, it will break down technology silos that can hamper effective policing. Currently, there is a patchwork of technology being used by thousands of officers across the 43 different forces that doesn’t always operate seamlessly together. Take Cumbria, for example, a forward-leaning force that has adopted Fusus, a hi-tech real-time crime centre unifying various data and video sources into a single, map-based interface. It’s an impressive system until a criminal crosses the country border into Lancashire or Yorkshire and escapes detection, as officers don’t have the option to pull camera feeds from those counties into their crime centre. Crime doesn’t recognise county boundaries – our technology shouldn’t either.

Second, centralisation will allow industry to work more closely with the single body responsible for developing and deploying technology. This won’t just save money through economies of scale. It will also ensure new innovations meet the right regulations and data standards during development. This will eliminate the procurement bottlenecks that can delay game-changing technology by years. Too often, cutting-edge tools sit in development and regulatory limbo while procurement processes grind through 43 different force requirements. A unified approach can accelerate the delivery of tools that officers desperately need.

AI-enabled technology, from evidence review and report writing to real-time decision support, is evolving too fast for fragmented adoption. Policing needs to be able to test, iterate and adopt these tools just as quickly if it is to keep pace with modern crime. A centralised model enables rapid experimentation to happen within clear, nationally agreed guardrails of ethics, transparency and accountability. This avoids the false choice between innovation and public trust, allowing AI tools to be improved continuously while giving the public confidence that safeguards are not being compromised.

Third, it creates a feedback loop that puts the front line at the heart of innovation. Currently, technology is often “given to” officers rather than “built for” them. By centralising the R&D process, the National Police Service can move towards an iterative approach where feedback from an officer in Manchester can inform a product that could be used effectively in Cornwall. This ensures that tools are designed for the reality of policing.

The Policing White Paper sets an ambitious goal of freeing-up 6 million policing hours each year through technology, and the reforms proposed set a strong foundation for delivering it. We’ve already seen what’s possible. Kent and Essex police forces, through digital evidence management systems, have saved 50,000 hours of officer time by streamlining how evidence is collected and shared. Imagine scaling that success across the country.

As ever, technology alone isn’t the answer. The real opportunity lies in working collaboratively with industry to bridge the gap between those building the tech and those using it. This will not just improve efficiency but also improve officer morale and public safety by ensuring the best tools are always in the right hands.

Now comes the hard work of turning policy into operational reality. By embracing centralisation while keeping frontline officers at the heart of the innovation process, we can ensure that technology drives a transformation in policing that matches the scale and ambition set out by the Home Secretary – delivering the safer communities and better outcomes the public deserves.

Alex Lowe is UK & Ireland Regional Director at Axon