Detailed below are summaries of the runners up and the winners of each of the 8 NPCC DDaT Digital Policing Awards categories.
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Runner Up
The Police Service of Northern Ireland – The ME App
Psychological-related sickness absence makes up the largest percentage of sick leave in PSNI. To address this the force developed the ME app, which allows officers and staff to better understand their own mental wellbeing.
The ME App provides information on how to access support if needed. It works on a wide range of devices, force or private, and helps users assess and track their Mental Wellbeing, with scores provided after each assessment to indicate the severity of potential symptoms, and it allows users to review the results of previous evaluations so that trends may be identified in each area.
More than 2,260 screeners have been completed and the force is continuing to develop the content of the app to make it as helpful to PSNI staff and officers as possible.
Winner
West Yorkshire Police
This award recognises West Yorkshire Police for really putting inclusiveness at the heart of what they do.
We talk a lot about Digital Innovation and often assume that everyone can get involved, but sometimes this needs a bit more thought, and the force is recognised as the category winner for the work they are doing in ensuring that the tools and services they have are accessible to all, how needs need to be addressed by suppliers, and what this can mean for colleagues who need support and different tools to get the best out of their digital workplace.
Richard Jones, one of the Digital Policing Business Analysts at West Yorkshire Police, is a passionate champion of accessibility rights. He identified a critical gap in the forces organisational processes, and developed a method of supporting those with Digital Accessibility and Neuro Diverse needs. His approach – which has been shared nationally – has resulted in significant savings for the force and provided valuable support for staff members.
Accessible digital systems are something that should be in place for all members of the policing community in each and every policing organisation. Initiatives like this close the gaps of where forces need to be and provide valuable support to staff.
As well as avoiding costs running into £m’s (judged by cost avoidance) it also ensures those with disabilities at all levels can still use the tools they need to to do their job.
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Runners up
Cheshire – IT Security Team
Cheshire Police took a close look at their systems and the cyber security processes in place, with a view to ensuring these were up to the required standard to protect the data they hold about, and on behalf of the public. Amongst many improvements they implemented was a completely air gapped Cyber Vault to help mitigate the potential impact of any ransomware attack the force may be subjected to.
They also implemented Canary Devices across their network, which act as honey-pots on the network with the aim of enticing any potential threat actors to them.
The force also runs an active and engaging Cyber Security training programme for all officers and staff.
As such the Cheshire Constabulary IT Security Team have established the force’s reputation as one of the most mature police forces in the area of Cyber Security.
Thames Valley – Cyber Response Plan
Thames Valley Police, again recognised the cyber security risks facing UK Police forces
One of the key risks identified was the need to implement an effective cyber response plan which can be invoked in the event of an attack on the Forces joint ICT systems.
The challenges faced by Thames Valley, Hampshire amd Isle of Wight Police was that whilst Joint Forces ICT manage Disaster Recovery, any response would require careful planning, taking in to account the distinct identities and operational needs of separately managed Forces.
The Joint Forces CIO assigned a team to set up a Joint Forces Cyber Response Plan to manage cyber-attacks. It was also tasked with training all officers and staff that would be engaged in the response activities identified within the plan. They also ran testing to identify the effectiveness of the response plan via a combination of desktop and simulation exercises
Finally they implemented Governance & Assurance to ensure response plans are maintained and updated based on risks identified through the Cyber Threat & Response Board.
Winner
Merseyside Police
Like most forces, Merseyside Police faces considerable cyber security challenges – overall resourcing and risk, expertise is hard to acquire, and cyber security knowledge becomes outdated quickly, necessitating continuous learning and adaptation.
There is also a noticeable “brain drain” from cyber crime units, where experienced professionals leave for other opportunities, exacerbating the challenge.
The force identified that it had multiple teams with common skills and expertise, but with different responsibilities that often operated in isolation, with work sometimes repeated across Policing, ICT and NMC Cyber teams.
Merseyside Police’s cyber improvement work started during Liverpool’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 where a ‘defend as one approach’ brought the teams, skills and expertise together under clear leadership building a stronger, dynamic relationship through better communication and intelligence sharing. The force initiated this approach through closer collaboration and information sharing with peers, partners and teams, that had a positive and beneficial impact on all parties.
Just one of a number of examples cited as to how this approach delivered increased cyber security excellence post Eurovision was when in early April 2024, the force ICT group proactively identified phishing emails received from NHS personnel. This showed potential compromises at two regional NHS Trusts, including a children’s hospital.
They made the NMC and Cybercrime Unit aware, who through their contacts, raised with NHS Central Security Teams, who were unaware of the compromises.
This allowed rapid remediation of the compromises that could have affected the integrity of NHS services at these regional trusts, preventing further lateral movement through the NHS network, protecting the community.
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Runners Up
Cumbria Police – LED Rollout – replacing the PNC.
The LED will replace the PNC, delivering an enhanced law enforcement data service that will be at the heart of protecting the public. The ‘switch’ from the longest running, most reliable and sustainable policing system to a new web-based platform across the policing landscape is massively significant.
Cumbria is one of only four forces who are LEDS Persons Pioneers involved in the critical development of Persons with the LEDS Persons Product Team. They are also LEDS Broadcast Pioneers.
The force has limited resources but set up a small LEDS Programme Team led by Chief Supt Carl Patrick, and Martin Brammer, who have enabled Cumbria to be the top performing force over the past year across the UK in a key search area.
In terms of overall LEDS transaction data for Property, Drivers, Vehicles and Audit, Cumbria completed over 20% of the national searches, far higher than many much larger forces.
Met Police – The NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme.
Tony Josephs. Programme Director, shows enthusiasm, commitment, and integrity, striving to do the right thing for the police and the public in his approach, showing a grasp of all of the complex programme elements, with a focus on the quality of delivery.
He brings people together, removes barriers to solve problems ensures it is well connected into other areas of national work, and is seen to provide solutions and solve problems.
He encourages bold thinking, is brave in his decision making and has never been afraid to step up and take charge when required.
Tony has been central to the programme getting to near national adoption of the Single Online Home web platform, using his relationships, support for staff and creative thinking to ensure the programme delivers.
Through positive stakeholder engagement and focussed leadership in the programme he ensured there was enough confidence from the UK Government for the programme to receive extra in year funding to deliver the MyPolice Portal proof of concept with Humberside Police in August 2023. This work was delivered on budget, within a tight deadline by the end of March 2024.
Winner
Warwickshire Police
The force instigated a Digital Transformation Programme ‘Empower Technology’ initiative led by Nick Clarke. Under this, the force rebuilt its ICT provision, leading multiple programmes to move from a position of technical debt to one of the leading forces in terms of digital service.
This was an ambitious 2-year digital transformation programme to leverage benefits from their new ICT platform and introduce new capabilities to underpin a performance step-change.
Nick led on delivery, migrating operating model change from an expensive external contractor model to a permanent in-house model, maintaining service levels whilst significantly reducing run cost, enabling reallocation of spend to fund further operational improvements.
This was handled very sensitively as not to impact on delivery. The transition was delivered with minimal disruption and without fanfare. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this was achieved because Nick was able to identify and develop talent in the force to deliver complex technology change and removing reliance on more expensive outsourced resources.
Nick’s personal leadership enabled trust and confidence amongst key senior stakeholders to support investment in the new team operating model and right across the force in terms of our ability to deliver complex digital change. This trust and confidence was historically lacking and a sense that there was little chance of getting digital initiatives actually delivered.
The results speak for themselves; 2023/24 saw 49 projects completed successfully representing £8m of spend and multi-million-pound benefits. In addition programme means the force is in a leading position with Origin HR, Axon, National LEDS, PowerApps/Power BI and many other areas, with technical debt removed.
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Runner Up
Warwickshire Police – Data and Insight Team, Business Intelligence Dashboards
The force took an iterative approach to rolling out self-service business intelligence dashboards, making improvements in data warehousing, modelling and reporting.
The team embraced the mantra no matter how complex the topic, reports needed to be intuitive and accessible to busy operational officers and staff, who make critical decisions based on the data and insights provided.
They have produced over 30 dashboards, getting over 50,000 views and are already reaching 30% of the Warwickshire Police workforce. Supervisors are using the reports generated on a daily basis to drive performance improvements in their areas. The force has improved detection rates by 8% in the last year and having this live-time data has been crucial.
Winner
The Metropolitan Police
For this category the award goes to the Met Police for one of the most unique nominations; their work on Applied Geospatial Data Science, and lead by one person – Iain Agar. Iain has been tackling complex policing problems for many years and is a respected name at the forces in which he worked, as well as more widely in the field of crime analysis.
As the only Geospatial Data Scientist in the Metropolitan Police, Iain is constantly developing cutting-edge techniques and tirelessly refining his methods, combining geographically targeted intervention with data science. Moreover, he works closely with the business, clearly articulating the complexities of his work in simple, clear language that immediately gets buy-in.
His innovative solutions, dedication to professional development, and unwavering commitment to public safety have transformed the operational capabilities of policing and significantly enhanced the quality of life for the communities they serve.
Just two examples are as follows: –
- Iain has made a huge impact to the way the MPS approaches the analysis of high-risk areas, particularly in support of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). He combined his in-depth understanding of Risk Terrain Modelling with geospatial data science to identify the highest risk areas for VAWG, using insights into different types of violence against females to formulate intervention strategies.
- Another of Iain’s high-impact projects was his geospatial data science work for the MPS’s tackling of weapon crime. Iain combined multiple techniques to create an innovative product for the identification of the most harmful weapon-enabled crime locations. His innovative maps are being used across London to inform and enable tailored intervention for the direct benefit of local communities.
Iain’s approach to crime analysis and leadership in crime prevention have led to appreciation amongst the community of geospatial and analytics professionals, but there are numerous police officers and countless members of the public who have benefited immensely from his tireless dedication to community safety.
His innovative solutions, dedication to professional development, and unwavering commitment to public safety have transformed the operational capabilities of policing and significantly enhanced the quality of life for the communities they serve.
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Runners Up
Bedfordshire Police – Auto Redaction Project
It’s imperative that sensitive information is protected while maintaining transparency and public trust. As such redacting such information prior to it going public is critical.
The force faced challenges with the volume and complexity of documents, human error, resource constraints, and technical limitations of existing tools. The consequences of failure are severe. For instance, a complex case involving a child resulted in over 10,000 files necessitating consideration for redaction, which subsequently led to a three-month delay in the court proceedings.
Working with an external supplier the force introduced mechanisms to continue user feedback and iterative development. 14 other forces have gone live with similar solutions now live, and a total 35 out of 43 forces to have engaged with Bedfordshire around the solution.
In terms of outcomes 171,946 pages have been processed, and the force is on track to realise an efficiency saving of 9,500 hours per year which will enable their officers and investigators to be notably more productive.
Police Scotland – Core Operational Solutions (COS) programme
The COS programme enabled national processes supporting Crime, Case, Warrants, Productions, Direct Measures, Road Traffic Accidents, Missing Persons and federated search.
To comply with GDPR and facilitate decommissioning of the 44 non-compliant legacy applications, a complex data migration exercise was required as data in these systems was over 20 years old and consequently, varied greatly in terms of structure, content and quality. This was a transformative leap in both technology and the ability to apply national processes, enhancing efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of service to the public.
The ability to be ‘data centric’ is recognised as key to achieving the organisation’s vision. COS and the enterprise implementation of PowerBI were key enablers in equipping Police Scotland with the platforms and digital capabilities required to meet operational requirements and service aspirations.
The efficiencies introduced via COS and Mobile Working Integration increased officer visibly within the communities improving public confidence and improved officer empowerment to provide a more informed service to the public.
The predicted cost range has been estimated at between £42.8M and £70.7M over 10 years, but the key benefits expected are more than double £117.1M- £145.6M over those 10 years
Winner
Humberside Police
Humberside Police launched two solutions – their Victim Journey and My Police Portal to provide a better service to the public and to reduce pressure on force resources.
1 in 5 calls into force control rooms are from the public asking for updates on an incident or crime that is being progressed elsewhere in the organisation. For Humberside Police, this equates to around 54,000 calls per year, showing there was a need to do better for the communities they serve, being both more responsive, and more proactive.
They have delivered on this with two solutions that work hand-in-hand to deliver efficiencies and improve public confidence – Victim Journey and My Police Portal. The former is an automated set of messages sent to victims of crime at specific points in the crime report life cycle to keep them informed of case progress.
The latter is a solution for which they were selected to be the lead force to design and deliver a national victim portal where members of the public can self-serve, contact their OIC and receive case updates as the crime investigation progresses. This portal has been branded as My Police Portal and went live in Humberside in March 2024. The portal incorporates the messaging encompassed in Victim Journey and is the natural next step towards keeping people better informed.
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Runners Up
Bedfordshire Police – NECTAR Project
The sheer scale of data needing investigation hugely impacts the ability to progress cases quickly. Especially with a need to search across different systems.
The force focused on enabling data stored in multiple source systems to be extracted through automation and integrated into front end user modules. The solution creates efficiencies and compliance in partnership data sharing, increases productivity and provides officers and staff with notably better information and the context it relates to.
South Wales and Gwent Police – Facial Recognition Project
Their challenge was to tackle the sweeping misconceptions of FRT in order to build trust and confidence amongst the communities, demonstrating transparent, ethical use of the technology and promote its broader adoption throughout UK policing, developing a framework and guidance to support national uptake of the 3 strands of FRT, those being Live Facial Recognition (LFR), Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR) and Operator Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR).
South Wales Police have pioneered the use of LFR as a target hardening tactic for major events, offering opportunities to engage with the public whilst creating a safe and welcoming environment.
In terms of RFR, this has shortened the investigative process, offering earlier opportunities to tackle prolific offenders before they can commit further offences.
The FRT Team have also developed Operator Initiated Facial Recognition which offers the ability to utilise facial recognition at the point of interaction and returning accurate identifications in seconds.
This promotes opportunities to not just identify suspects and take robust policing action to tackle their offending, but to also identify vulnerable persons and those in medical or mental health crisis and also it can play a key role in offering better response to incidents such as fatal RTCs and deaths.
Critically it also has a marked and positive impact on force efficiency with over £2.9m achieved in efficiency savings in just the introduction of RFR into both forces.
West Midlands Police – Andi ESRA automated 101 Project
The force identified that they had circa 60,000 calls per month with wait times typically 15 mins. Or more, and typically half of all calls abandoned. To improve matters the force bought in a new virtual recruit – Andi ESRA, a Voice Assistant to answer 101 non-emergency calls designed in-house using public cloud services technology.
Andi-ESRA answers the calls and has a conversation with the caller to deal with their enquiries. In a 2-month period, it answered over 17,000 calls, prioritised nearly 800 vulnerable callers, and handled 5,500 calls against use cases.
Some of the classified vulnerable callers were on topics such as Domestic Violence, Suicide Prevention and Missing Children. WMP prioritised these calls directly to contact agents and “skipped the 101 queue” for those urgent responses.
Winner
Avon and Somerset Police
Avon and Somerset won this category – which attracted the most nominations – with their Custody Tracker; a self-service cloud based digital platform for defence solicitors. This is a brilliant example of how a force IT department can address an issue that many would think was outside of their remit, addressing challenges faced by custody and defence solicitors, but which also have a material effect on the force.
Previously, the only way solicitors could obtain information clients in custody was by contacting the force by phone. Custody centres,101 and Officers in Case (OICs) were receiving around 19,000 calls/year from defence solicitors, significantly impacting on custody resources.
Also suspects failing to appear at court leads to fail to appear warrants being issued by the court, placing demand back on police to locate and arrest the suspect. And of course those suspects arrested on warrants come back to police custody and need transporting to court either that day or the following day. All this puts a strain on already limited resources
Additionally, solicitors claim from the Legal Aid board for fees representing the individual. If the solicitor is unaware of the progress of the case, they are often unaware of the court date that has been set and are therefore unable to represent their client. A market review concluded there were no commercially available products to address the issue – so the force built a bespoke solution.
Custody Tracker is an online self-service portal hosted on Azure Cloud. Solicitors – once securely registered – can access the portal via a landing page providing all the information about the case. For instance they can request a copy of the custody records, and be automatically notified by email of key events such as changes in custody records, or the disposal or offence changes for the custody record they are tracking. The system is also fully audited for security and compliance purposes.
The solution was tested among a focus group of solicitors to ensure it was fit for their journey and is constantly evolving to further benefit custody officers / staff, the defence community and criminal justice colleagues.
In its first year 24,000 Solicitor calls prevented from coming into custody, 101 or the OIC. Already 4,600 Solicitors are using custody tracker, and 2,700 hours have been saved just through providing a copy of the custody record. This alone has saved 120,000 pages from being printed.
144,000 Automatic updates were sent to solicitor informing a change in the custody record they are tracking, and 900 reminder emails sent to OIC about their detainees returning on bail.
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Runners Up
Bedfordshire Police -Auto Redaction Project
Also nominated under Frontline Impact as well, the force developed a more efficient auto redaction process suitable for all of policing.
It leverages artificial intelligence to support individuals, but is not designed to remove humans from the process. This project has set a benchmark for how automated (assisted) solutions can significantly improve operational efficiency and compliance in policing.
Critically the force is on track to realise an annual reduction of over 9,500 hours in time spent redacting, so not only improving how they handle data, but also increasing public confidence and trust in the force, and generating considerable efficiencies.
West Yorkshire Police – Online Digital Statement
The force set up a solution that enabled it to interact with the public in the area of sending, signing and returning documents electronically instead of in person – to remotely and digitally send and sign statements online, utilising an external providers system.
The ability to send files to the public to download, read and sign for the content allows for significant reductions in officer travel time and fuel/vehicle costs. In fact the time savings costed out are expected to be over £2.5m per annum. In addition this also shows to the public that the force is embracing Digital tools in an age where the public increasingly expect to be able to interact online.
Winner
Greater Manchester Police
The force took a long hard look at its digital and IT estate – and took a big and bold decision to creating a whole system change to reduced IT costs, improve productivity and deliver value for money.
A detailed IT strategy was published in 2023 and a technology roadmap in 2024, the first that GMP has had for many years. These set out the strategic, architectural and technological principles for the force. The force now has a vision for all solutions and services to be the best that industry has to offer; that put the user first, open up collaboration with other agencies, are secure and will build on GMP’s commitment to transform the way policing is delivered.
A strategic decision was taken to invest £4m over 3 years into a ‘fix the basics’ programme to deliver a data centre migration, and to address a chronic lack of maintenance and management of systems, software, and hardware. This was alongside an investment of £12.2m over 3 years into GMP’s IT infrastructure to enable it to be re-platformed (deployed) and managed in modern, resilient, and hybrid environment.
Staff technology was also refreshed, with a comprehensive investment plan including 3300 body worn video units, 6600 radios, 145 rooms of video conferencing equipment and 10,000 mobile phones. Purchasing on this scale offered opportunities to negotiate with suppliers to derive savings alongside presenting a logistical challenge for roll out which the team rose to.
The team took the force from an organisation in which it felt everything in IT was broken, to a force that has reduced IT costs, massively improved productivity and service, and is now delivering value for money, meeting expectations of its staff, officers and the citizens it serves.
Just some of the key stats:
- Open IT helpdesk tickets reduced from 24,481 to 1,572.
- Average IT helpdesk desk ticket resolution time reduced from 168 hours to 7 hours.
- Reduction from 850 to 23 “high” vulnerabilities within the IT health check
- Net promoter score (friend and family test) for IT help desk of 97 out of 100.
- £5.1m of savings delivered in 23/24 from improved contract negotiations.
- 500K of savings delivered in Q1 of 24/25 from improved contract negotiations.
- £1.1m of recuring savings identified from the insourcing of contracts in 24/25.
- £3.4m of cost avoidance delivered in 23/24 though robust contract management.
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Runners Up
Surrey and Sussex Police – Jenn Hutchinson, Mobile Development Manager
A nomination that recognises not only dedication, innovation, and leadership but shows that the ability to move between police and civilian roles in a force can deliver real benefits.
With years of operational experience as a detective, Jenn transitioned to police staff in 2018 and leveraged her deep understanding of frontline policing to drive advancements in mobile policing capabilities across Surrey and Sussex.
Her mobile policing initiatives are amongst the most mature and effective in the UK, including Misper and Dispersal alerts. These are revolutionising how officers respond to these areas, improving efficiency and effectiveness and safeguarding vulnerable people.
In addition her collaborative efforts with TVP / Hampshire is fostering a unified approach to mobile policing, benefitting the broader law enforcement community and the public.
Bedfordshire – Pip Keys, Deputy Programme Director of Continuous Improvement
Pip’s job title is Deputy Programme Director of Continuous Improvement, but ask anyone at the ERSOU there and “365 Guru” would be more appropriate. On her own initiative, she has gone above and beyond her day-to-day work, exploring innovative ways to improve quality, efficiency, and value.
Amongst a long list, work on a Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) solution stands out. From scratch, she created a suite of data collection, analysis and presentation tools using M365, to make it happen.
By reaching out directly to colleagues, and making herself available via her Friday 365 Clinic, Pip has increased M365 confidence and helped so many people in the force upskill to take advantage of the benefits the technology can deliver.
Winners
The Police Service of Northern Ireland – 2 representatives
Due to the closeness of the following 2 nominations, it was agreed amongst the judges that they should be recognised as joint winners, both are part of the PSNI ICS (Information and Communication Services).
Person 1 has contributed to the safety and security of the people of Northern Ireland for over 40 years in his service within the force and its predecessor with his specialist technical knowledge, personal investment and commitment to the physical communications infrastructure established across Northern Ireland.
He is a highly knowledgeable and skilled individual who quietly carries out his role ensuring the continued operation of the communications tower estate, through management of the tower sites, the supporting infrastructure and utilities, providing 24/7/365 communications for all Blue Light Emergency Services in NI. ensuring that the Emergency Services and Utility sector have access to radio communications no matter where they operate in NI.
Following the end of Operation Banner and the military draw-down from Northern Ireland, he was responsible for the handover and acceptance of a number of former MOD sites to the PSNI ICS, with him ensuring that the sites were carefully transitioned from their former military roles to operate under the public safety and utility role supported by PSNI-ICS.
Person 2 – is responsible for the installation, maintenance & support of the Tetra Critical National Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. This is a unique “in house” radio network incomparable with those used by other UK police forces. With challenging staffing levels, the force relies on this technically capable, industrious & diligent member of staff.
This person runs the Field Maintenance unit and is responsible for the NI Emergency Services radio network. His enthusiasm, vision and leadership continually yields advantages, benefits and tangible results for the PSNI and 19 other agencies that avail themselves of the network.
The PDSI rely on his total commitment to service, his willingness and technical competency, his “can do” attitude, and his selflessness in making himself available out of hours, day or night.
He is pivotal in ensuring first class radio communications through innovative ideas and management of limited resources. In the Northern Ireland security context, he also constantly takes measured risks in terms of his own personal security, frequently accessing sites in remote areas and places traditionally unsupportive of Police in order to support NI Emergency Services.
There is no doubt that person 2’s continuous hard work goes largely unnoticed to many individuals outside of telecoms, however his 100% devotion, availability, and expertise has been the critical success factor for the NI Emergency Services radio network.
Both these individuals are highly regarded by the PSNI and play a pivotal role in providing the infrastructure required not only by the force but many of Northern Ireland organisations.