Sara Thornton: The whole idea about transformation is about investing now to save money later

Sara Thornton told the Centre for Public Impact:

“Whether it is child abuse, fraud, cyber – there are massive changes in what we’re dealing with. And it often doesn’t make sense to do it in isolation, or in siloed police forces.

“The whole idea about transformation – particularly around technology but some of it about procurement and building up people’s skills – is about investing now to save money later. It’s about modernising so there are fewer steps needed in the process, working out where we can automate more, how we can professionalise teams so they need less supervision – all this kind of thing. But transformations are never easy – trying to get alignment from people with very different motivations is always a challenge.”

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and the NPCC are working with police leaders to reform and transform policing by 2020 focusing on five priorities for reform:

• local policing;
• specialist capabilities like armed policing and organised crime investigation;
• digital policing;
• building a workforce with the right skills for the future;
• improving collaboration in business support services.

For more information about our reform and transformation work visit: http://www.npcc.police.uk/NPCCBusinessAreas/ReformandTransformation/Reformandtransformation.aspx

Full Centre for Public Impact article visit: http://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/article/creating-a-police-force-of-the-future/