NAO report reinforces arguments for police reform

Today the National Audit Office has published a diligent, comprehensive report about police productivity.

This report reinforces the arguments policing has been making for significant structural reform of our service.

There has been no deliberate design of policing since the 1960s. The current system is built on short term funding and a dearth of capital investment.

Borrowing has increased, debt is rising and reserves are depleted. In practice that has meant ICT systems are under invested in, increasingly varied and fragmented across the country.

The system is further complicated by a myriad of local, regional and national decision makers. There is way too much complication and competition in our current ways of working. 

In the current financial climate we simply cannot afford the current set up, and that’s been a problem long in the making.

With an uneven distribution of funding, and widely different local levels of taxation, that range from under 20 per cent of budget, to well over 50 per cent of budget, we are beginning to see parts of the system start to fail. 

From a safety perspective this means that depending on where you live, your local police will have varying levels of resilience and capability. That cannot be right.

Policing is doing lots of innovation and pioneering use of technology. But this is often delivered in isolation, as we are not currently structured or financially supported to deliver that at a national scale.

National rollout of things like artificial intelligence, digital forensics, live facial recognition and drone technology would be game changing for policing.

Our estimates believe doing so would save hundreds of millions of pounds for reinvestment into frontline services and generate millions of extra hours for our officers and staff to fight crime and be even more visible in our communities.

The focus on recruiting police officers also means forces are unable to recruit for example the specialist technical and digital staff that could make a real difference, with police officers often having to backfill staff roles.

I know the government shares our commitment to police reform and in the coming weeks we anticipate a white paper will be published to support this.

The previous home secretary has already committed to the creation of a new National Centre of Policing as part of this programme.

The new centre must have strategic, enabling and operational capabilities. From setting long term workforce plans, to procuring services once for everyone, to working with government and industry to fully embrace the transformational power of science and technology.

These are all things that make no sense to do multiple times over. We need the white paper to be bold and to be ambitious. Anything less will limit the possibility for lasting change.

Policing is good for safety, it is good for business and it is good for the UK economy. 

Now we need the very best of UK science and technology to be invested into policing, to equip our colleagues with the skills and tools to be successful against criminal threats, and to be able to provide consistent service in every neighbourhood.