NPCC calls for better tech investment

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has published a digital strategy refresh, setting out five digital ambitions it aims to realise by 2030, calling for government capital investment in police technology.

The strategy said that the current approach to digital, data and technology (DDaT) needs to change to maximise the impact of investments. The current approach is fragmented and local police forces struggle to balance short-term operational objectives with longer-term priorities for digital investment, according to the strategy.

“This also hinders effective prioritisation of risks and opportunities at local, regional and national levels, each with different risk appetites,” said the strategy. “Digital decision-makers may lack a seat at the executive level, and so may not feel empowered, resourced or responsible to make more strategic choices around digital ownership and investment planning.”

In the previous financial year, the policing sector spent just under £1.8bn on IT, which is estimated to rise to around £2bn in the 2025-26 financial year. A large proportion of this is spent on maintaining legacy, on-premise infrastructure, and the NPCC estimates that £590m will be spent in the 2025-26 financial year to simply maintain these systems.

“This significant expenditure represents missed opportunities for investment in more modern, secure and strategically aligned solutions to benefit the sector by providing greater economic value by utilising the data in more effective, efficient and compliant ways, often not possible with legacy solutions,” the strategy said.

It stated that there is a current inbalance in the distribution of resource “around the national coordination of DDaT in policing as opposed to that found within the Home Office”, adding: “With only a handful of funded national roles to represent and manage DDaT on behalf of policing, this results in the strategy being managed less effectively.”

The NPCC is calling on the upcoming Spending Review to allocate around £220m of government funding to police science and technology per year over the three-year spending review period to allow for scaling up of tested science and technology capabilities.

NPCC chair Gavin Stephens said that a decade with “very limited capital investment in policing has meant prioritising existing technology over innovation”.

“The vast majority of police force technology budgets are spent on ageing systems and simply keeping the lights on. This has to change. Criminals are investing in technology to do harm; we need to invest to keep up and stop them,” he said.

“With government investment in the spending review, we are ready to roll out technology which could save millions of hours, finish investigations in days instead of months and keep pace with criminal advancements.   

“Without investment, we will fall behind rather than become more productive. We will not be able to restore neighbourhood policing. Halving violence against women and girls, and halving knife crime, will become much harder to reach targets.” 

The strategy’s five ambitions include protecting the public through technologies such as drones and real-time surveillance tools, continuing the roll-out of live face-recognition units.

The NPCC also wants to create a seamless citizen experience, making it easier for the public to connect with and contact their local police force through digital public engagement platforms to access police services.

Additionally, the council aims to build a new national digital forensics’ platform, making it easier for officers to process evidence on digital devices. Officers will be upskilled in digital literacy and technology use to meet modern policing demands.

There is also an ambition to work with both industry and academia to co-develop innovative solutions and local innovation, as well as ensuring procurement is joined up across forces, which will increase interoperability and flow of information between forces.

NPCC DDaT lead Rob Carden said digital technology, data and analytics have become integral to police forces. “Policing must change the way we approach data, digital and technology to ensure we invest in solutions which can be used nationally across all police forces,” he said.

“The National Policing Digital Strategy will provide the direction, purpose and roadmap necessary for forces to enable the changes required. Working towards common goals, which can be upscaled at pace nationally to ensure we are making the savings in time and money to help our officers catch criminals and protect the public using data, digital and technology in the most effective way. 

“One of our key ambitions is to give local communities more convenient ways to get in touch with their local force through improving things such as websites and apps, while developing a range self-service digital engagement channels that anyone is able to use and access.”