Taking strides in making this happen
To deliver the ambition and priorities will require investment in our workforce, the re-engineering of established ways of working, and the modernisation of our current underpinning data and technology foundations.
The remainder of this strategy focusses on these foundations, proposes a set of activities that will enable their creation and assesses the key considerations in their delivery.
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We need to invest in these enablers in a collaborative way to achieve the priorities we aspire to achieve in the next 5 to 10 years. In setting out the data and technology enablers, we have also considered the impact on people, ethics and capabilities. Together, these illustrate how transformation can be delivered and sustained.
This strategy sets out seven data and technology enablers that underpin the modernisation of our service and allow us to improve our capabilities.
- Data: We will unlock value from data while maintaining public trust. We will do this by improving national support and guidance on data management and drive convergence to a national data architecture model.
- Strategic alignment and design: We will align around a national vision for police data and technology. This will be borne from the architectural principles we apply, and will guide our investments.
- Modernised core technology: We will take every opportunity to reduce the complexity and cost of the legacy infrastructure as we modernise.
- Connected technology: We will put the power of data and information in the hands of our officers and staff when and where they need it.
- Risk and security: We will maintain public trust by securing our data and by applying a consistent, proportional approach to technology risk across policing.
- Talent in data and technology: We will identify, develop, and position the next generation of data and technology talent required in our technology functions to help inform and enable our transformation.
- Transforming the PoliceTech market: We will incentivise an open, vibrant PoliceTech market that drives value and innovation around real-world policing challenges in a responsible way.
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We will unlock more value from data while maintaining public trust. We will do this by improving national support and guidance on data management and drive convergence to a national data architecture and model.
Data is an essential asset to enable digital transformation. We need data that can be securely accessed by our workforce and our public sector partners to improve our services for citizens, the private sector and to enable positive community policing outcomes.
Data will help us shift from a reactive policing model, to designing proactive and preventative solutions to improve how we protect the public from harm.
Recommended actions:
1. Drive data quality and consistency by developing a reference data management guide nationally, to be deployed locally.
2. Develop, and converge towards, a common abstract data model, with supplier adherence, to facilitate system integration and data aggregation.
3. Improve secure access to data between police and partner organisations through in-force data sharing and access mechanisms, including federated identity management.
4. Define new relationships and responsibilities for data governance to drive a high-performing data
culture, where data-sharing and quality are optimal.5. Develop a national data ethics governance model to ensure data is acquired, used and shared in an
ethical way to safeguard public trust.6. Continue to build national automation, analytics, and AI capabilities to enhance data quality, facilitate data-sharing across systems and extract insights to deliver better service outcomes
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We will align ourselves around a national vision for police data and technology. This will be borne out in the architectural principles we apply, and guide our investments.
An agreed data and technology vision and roadmap will underpin policing digital transformation, delivering change in a consistent way across national programmes and forces.
Recommended actions:
1. Define a Policing Technology Blueprint or “enterprise architecture” capability to guide further transformation investments and drive alignment between national programmes and force transformation plans.
2. Enable forces to properly assess their as-is state, identify architectural gaps or duplications, and guide aligned local transformation activity by defining a logical force architecture and roadmap avoiding the creation of bespoke solutions in favour of Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications.
3. Define architectural principles for business, data, technology, and applications to drive consensus
in developing and maintaining technology across policing.4. Designate a technical design capability to support the uptake of architectural principles and standards to drive alignment across national and force level investments.
5. Create adoption guides that help forces simplify and speed up adoption of new functionality and
minimise cumbersome centralised governance mechanisms.
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We will take every opportunity to reduce the complexity and cost of the legacy infrastructure as we modernise.
It is essential that we invest in developing our infrastructures to meet existing and future demand. The recommended actions will provide the foundation for new digital services for our citizens and the
private sector, as well as ensure we can work collaboratively and effectively with our partners. They will also be crucial in underpinning and enabling digital innovations.Recommended actions:
1. Develop and execute a nationally coordinated transition to the cloud. Adopt a “cloud first” principle for applications and data, where economical. Consume Infrastructure-as-a-Service to enhance police storage and compute capabilities.
2. Update our network capacity by investing in more flexible and cost-effective ways of managing our
networks to ensure our move to cloud is not barred by prohibitive costs or poor connectivity.3. Consolidate applications and decommission non-essential infrastructure to deliver better value for money as well as the means to move towards more interoperable solutions such as Software-as-a-Service.
4. Apply a digital “loose coupling” strategy whereby legacy systems are not directly integrated into front-end applications or data layers. This will drive value from existing estate over a short delivery period.
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We will put the power of data and information in the hands of our officers and staff when and where they need it.
Operational effectiveness and the ability to protect and engage with citizens or our workforce can be significantly enhanced through connected technologies and by bringing insights and functionality directly to officers and staff wherever they are.
Recommended actions:
1. Define a roadmap charting the national policing connected technology standards to ensure our workforce is consistently enabled across the service.
2. Invest in common connected technology development to benefit from economies of scale and joint expertise.
3. Move towards open source code for policing mobile applications and formalise development standards to converge the policing application landscape towards the same high standards, as well as enabling interoperability with a larger range of partners and suppliers.
4. Converge to a mobile enterprise application environment at a national level to provide standardisation in the management of core requirements such as data security and device authentication.
5. Coordinate exploring the practical use cases, piloting and testing of emerging connected technology (e.g. drones, sensors, heads up displays) to maximise the potential of emerging technologies and to improve sharing of knowledge whilst also avoiding duplication of effort.
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We will maintain public trust by securing our data and by applying a consistent, proportional approach to technology risk across policing.
In the future we will exchange more data and information with partners, adopt new connected technologies and move to cloud-based infrastructures. But the move to a more open ecosystem will not be at the expense of security. We will investigate and invest in new security measures in light of evolving external threats to protect our systems from powerful next generation security threats such
as quantum computers.Recommended actions:
1. Define a holistic data and technology risk framework to enable more consistent risk decisions.
2. Define a “secure by design” model to align security standards across policing, which will be communicated to suppliers and partners to drive higher standards of cyber security across the service.
3. Provide standardised training and a formalised risk and security curriculum to ensure our service
understands evolving risks we are exposing ourselves to.4. Enhance existing risk and security communities to create a professionalised community of practice to equip policing resources with the right skills to assess risk.
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We will identify, develop, and position the next generation of data and technology talent required in our digital, data and technology functions to help inform and enable our transformation.
Digital transformation will alter the demands on policing digital, data and technology functions. To be able to deliver the Digital Strategy, we need to have defined the right roles and to have staffed these with the right people.
Recommended actions:
1. Implement a new data and technology talent model and sourcing strategies to help the digital, data and technology functions adapt to new demands from digital transformation.
2. Implement a new competency model to enable the change in core digital activities by delivering skill shifts in the digital, data and technology functions.
3. Redefine the role of the Chief Technology, Digital, or Information Officer to become a voice for digital and to support operational decision makers with the adoption of new digital capabilities to deliver improved services.
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We will incentivise an open and vibrant PoliceTech market that will drive value and innovation through the use of current and emerging technologies.
We need to improve our engagement with suppliers as we commence service wide digital transformation to drive greater efficiency and value for the policing family when we go to market. We need to create a vibrant market place where suppliers understand our expectations clearly and are incentivised to invest in policing technology.
Recommended actions:
1. Develop market and horizon-scanning capabilities to inform adoption of evolving disruptive technologies within public safety, and to provide guidance to citizens so that they can proactively protect themselves from disruptive threats.
2. Shift to a strategic partnership model with PoliceTech suppliers to work more collaboratively in
designing policing solutions.3. Set procurement frameworks for Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTs) products to ensure standardisation in procurement and adoption of products. This will minimise the burden of the procurement processes and enhance value for money.
4. Launch PoliceTech innovation challenges to bring emerging technology to address police challenges and incentivise suppliers to invest in the quality of their services and products.
5. Launch new funding mechanisms that support long term planning and PoliceTech innovation. This will help aggregate our buying power across forces whilst not blocking new disruptive market entrants.