Chancellor announces police response investment

In his Spring Budget, the Chancellor has this afternoon confirmed £230 million will be invested in rolling out time and money saving technology, speeding up police response times. This will include using video calls and drones as first responders. 

Alan Pughsley QPM, Lead Reviewer from the Policing Productivity Team, has reacted to this news: 

We welcome the government’s investment in policing technology as outlined today. We’re pleased the work of our independent team has highlighted the huge time savings that could be achieved through better use of technology; time that could be spent attending more burglaries, more cases of domestic abuse, more incidents of antisocial behaviour. 

The Policing Productivity Review has found that technology can enable the acceleration of existing tasks – such as redacting documents for use in court - and provide less resource-intensive ways of delivering services, for example by Rapid Video Response; something that has been well-received by victims of domestic abuse. 

Around 97% of today’s science and technology investment in policing* is spent on maintaining existing systems. There is a balance to be struck between ensuring these tools are fit for purpose and making the most of new innovations. Policing cannot afford to fall behind in this area which is why today’s funding announcement is so important.

• *Data from the office of the Policing Chief Scientific Advisor, Paul Taylor