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The Minister for Policing highlighted the importance of harnessing technology in his testimony to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Earlier this month Rt Hon Nick Hurd MP, the Home Office’s Minister of State for Policing, gave oral evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee as part of the Committee’s inquiry into “Policing for the future.”

During his evidence, when asked about the role of technology in helping forces collaborate, the Minister said “I think the biggest opportunity in British policing lies in technology” and described the issue of digital transformation in policing as one of his “personal bugbears or passion points.”

The Minister made clear that he is fully aware of the benefits that digital transformation can bring to policing. In particular, he highlighted the issues of better data sharing and analytics, and of improving the productivity of frontline officers, as key areas where major gains can be made (as techUK outlined in a recent blog).

The National Enabling Programmes and various regional force collaborations were given as examples of good practice, and the Minister made clear he wants to see the police service embracing more common ways of doing things. And he was absolutely right to observe that, within policing, “there has been a growing recognition of the problem and a much more intelligent response to the problem.”

So perhaps most interesting of his remarks was his observation, when discussing the Home office’s role in encouraging or mandating collaboration between forces, that “the Home Office is considering our role in relation to the system” and his view is that “the Home Office needs to take a stronger view on a number of things.” This would certainly be a departure from the current model, where the Home Office has made clear its distaste for telling forces what to do.

Reflecting on the Minister’s evidence to the Committee, techUK’s Programme Manger for Justice & Emergency Services commented:

“It is very reassuring that the Minister recognizes the vital importance of police embracing digital technology, and the need for tech enabled collaboration across the Service. Over recent years improvements have been made in encouraging forces to act in Common ways. The NPCC Co-ordinating committees, the Police ICT Company, the Police Technology Council, and the National Enabling Programmes are all evidence of senior figures in policing bringing forces closer together. As policing embraces common ways of buying and using tech, forces will start to be able to really make the most of innovation.

And the supplier community has its part to play. If the tech community shifts its narrative towards tech enabled ‘business transformation’ and outlines how tech can help deliver business change in the Service, tech champions within policing will be better able to make their case.”