Modernising the digital foundations

When the Government announced its intention to reduce the number of police forces in England and Wales from 43 to around a dozen “super‑forces”, the reaction across policing, technology and local government circles was a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

Excitement, because if done well, this is a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to fix longstanding fragmentation between forces, modernise digital infrastructure, and unlock genuine innovation now and into the future. Apprehension, because history tells us that structural change of this scale is never easy and often falls short of the goal.

At Phoenix Software, we’ve supported some of the largest and most complex public sector reorganisations of the past decade, including the recent wave of local government reorganisations (LGR). Of all the lessons we have learnt from LGR, the top one is this – unless digital, data and technology (DDaT) decisions are elevated to the top of the policing reform agenda from day one, the policy’s ambitions will fall flat. The stakes are simply too high, and the timelines too tight, for digital to be treated as an afterthought or a downstream workstream. Police consolidation will fail as a policy without digital leadership.

Here’s what we’ve learnt, and what police forces can do to prepare themselves.

A fragmented digital landscape cannot simply be ‘merged’

As outgoing HM Chief Inspector Sir Andy Cooke summarised in his most recent annual State of Policing report, “Modern policing depends on effective use of data and technology, yet many forces rely on outdated systems and poor data management”. The operational consequences of this situation are delays, duplication, inefficiency, and ultimately, poorer outcomes for victims and the public.

For decades, the UK’s regional policing model has struggled under the weight of technological fragmentation. Each force, in the main, buys and maintains its own systems, devices, networks, licensing, applications and data models. Each negotiates separately with vendors, outside of some joint force procurement services which have been established. Each builds IT environments unique to its history, budget and leadership, trying to take advantage of any nationally available blueprints and shared systems.

The result is a patchwork of 43 largely different digital estates, with some common threads. Most are outdated, bespoke, and poorly documented. While some forces have embraced cloud and modern workplace tools, this remains on a force-by-force basis, rather than a national mandate.

But pull all these systems together into 10-12 regional ‘super forces’? Without early digital leadership, this task could quickly lead to chaos.

Local governments learnt this the hard way. During the LGR programmes we were involved with, councils soon discovered they lacked even a basic, accurate inventory of their own systems and licences, let alone those of the neighbouring authorities they were merging with. In almost every case, initial discovery work took a year or more. And that was before anyone could begin designing the new organisation’s future architecture.

For policing, with operational systems that are larger, more sensitive and mission critical, the complexity will be exponentially greater.

This is why digital leadership cannot wait until structural decisions have been made. It must shape those decisions.

Vesting day means no room for digital ambiguity

Continuing the lessons from LGR, in every reorganisation we supported, one date dictated all planning pressure: “vesting day” – the moment the new authority officially exists and must function.

Vesting day has no sympathy for incomplete digital plans. Staff must log in. Systems must run. Citizens must access services. If the digital estate isn’t stable on day one, public trust evaporates before the new organisation has even begun operating.

Policing faces the same challenges, but with far greater impact. From day one:

• Officers must be able to access core operational systems (local and national databases including the PNC, communications systems, eg, email, messenger, mobile device services, etc.
• Command and control rooms must operate seamlessly, so officers know where they need to be and victims aren’t left unsupported.
• Intelligence workflows must function without delay
• Evidence systems must preserve the chain of custody.
• Forces must be able to continue to communicate securely with partner agencies so that no one falls through the cracks.

There is no ‘soft launch’ in policing. No downtime. No phased cutover that risks a failed 999 response.

Without appointed digital leadership before detailed planning even begins, the requirements for vesting day cannot be properly defined, let alone delivered.

Data is the foundation, but also the biggest risk and opportunity

Consolidation projects always promise improved data sharing, intelligence alignment and cross regional coordination. But none of this happens automatically. Data is the most valuable asset policing holds, and the most difficult to unify. Forces will differ in data definitions, governance models and data quality.

Digital leadership must begin by auditing the current data landscape – definitions, governance, quality, etc, – and designing an appropriate data strategy for the new forces, as well as a data strategy for the country as a whole. Which data should be stored nationally vs. regionally for example? From there a clear approach to data migration can be developed, governance and security models drawn up, data standards agreed upon, and a realistic timeline for migration put forward.

Cyber security must be levelled up

Cyber is another area where consolidation introduces significant risk, at least in the short term. It may sound counterintuitive, but merging organisations initially increases the attack surface, as legacy systems linger, data is moved, and people are distracted during the transition. Threat actors will seek to exploit this period of uncertainty.

But consolidation is also an opportunity to level up cyber security across all forces in the long-term.

A handful of well-resourced, well-equipped and joined-up ‘super-forces’ will be much easier to defend against cyberattacks than 43 disjointed, independent forces with much lower budgets. By adopting a ‘defend as one’ mantra where the super-forces coordinate on joint technologies and specialist resources, they will be in a much stronger position to defend against today’s emerging threats.

Cultural differences will cripple progress without a strong digital centre

Technology challenges are only half the story. The cultural challenge of merging forces may be even greater. Each of the 43 forces will have their own priorities, leadership, risk appetite, procurement approaches, and service philosophies. Even with goodwill, tension will emerge when organisations are forced to align on major DDaT decisions without clarity over who had the authority to decide, and why the decisions were made in the first place.

Each force has its unique histories, leadership structures, performance pressures and stakeholder expectations. Their technology strategies will reflect these differences. Consolidation will only succeed under the directorship of a single, empowered chief digital officer.

Show me the money…

According to a recent National Audit Office report into police productivity, Policing already invests nearly £2 billion a year in technology – yet a staggering 97 per cent of that is spent on the maintenance of existing systems. With just three per cent of the available budget left for investment, no wonder police forces have struggled to innovate.

The incentive to free up a greater proportion of this £2 billion budget for future innovation through the modernisation of existing systems is clear. But this change requires its own investment.

The challenge facing the Government now is how to put a figure on this policy, and where to find the money.

Has anyone found the Magic Money Tree yet? The UK Government has yet to announce a specific, dedicated budget to fund the proposed police force consolidation programme. The Catch-22 is that nobody will know precisely how much will be needed until planning begins in earnest. And planning costs money too…

What must happen now

While government will continue shaping the legislative and structural frameworks for consolidation, there are a number of steps police forces can take now to help them prepare:

1. Appoint regional digital leaders before structural decisions are finalised. A chief digital officer for each new super force must be in place to shape the consolidation plan from the outset.

2. Begin discovery now. Every force should audit their systems, contracts, devices, data and dependencies well in advance. If you don’t know what you have, you won’t know what to keep, upgrade or scrap.

3. Establish shared principles on architecture, cyber and data. These principles must be binding, not advisory, and agreed by all forces.

Policing has waited decades for the opportunity to modernise its digital foundations. Consolidation can unlock huge improvements in efficiency, collaboration and outcomes. But it will not succeed by accident, nor through structural change alone.

Without early leadership and decision-making in this area, police forces risk significant service disruption, spiralling costs and lost opportunities for positive transformation.

But if the right decisions are made now, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to design a DDaT infrastructure that is truly fit for the needs of modern policing; scalable, secure and with the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of the future.

With so much to do, now is not the time to wait for Whitehall. This is the moment for policing to take the lead and shape its own destiny.

Craig Taylor is CTO at Phoenix Software.