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Government Technology | Volume 9.5
MOBILE WORKING
POLICE MOBILE SYSTEMS: HOLY GRAIL OR POISONED CHALICE? The last two and a half years have seen significant government investment in police mobile systems. Paul Hampton from C-innovate looks at how this investment has panned out and what the future looks like IT’S TWO AND A HALF YEARS SINCE Gordon Brown announced the mass deployment of mobile computing devices to frontline police officers. Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth in 2007 he said: “We will provide hand held computers – 1,000 now, by next year 10,000 right across the country – cutting paperwork so that officers can log crimes on the spot, stay on the beat and not waste time returning to the station to fill out forms.” Since then central government has invested
Jan Berry’s ‘Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing’ report published in November 2009 touched on the subject of mobile data in a rather cautionary manner: “While the underlying technology is now available, at present not all forces are able to make full use of this, which will restrict benefits. As a result, it is important not to overstate what the devices will achieve: claims such as promising that officers will save ‘30 minutes per shift’ are as yet hard to prove, particularly as at this stage, most front-line officers do not have units
While the underlying technology is now available, at present not all forces are able to make full use of this, which will restrict benefits. As a result, it is important not to overstate what the devices will achieve: claims such as promising that officers will save ‘30 minutes per shift’ are as yet hard to prove, particularly as at this stage £80 million. This equates to approximately £1.5m per force, although the money has not been divvied up equally. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) was responsible for the distribution of the cash and forces were allocated funds depending on certain criteria including size, but more importantly, capability to deliver. The latter focused on aspects such as ability to deliver on time, alignment with force strategic objectives and commitment to realisation of benefits. The higher a force scored on their capability to deliver the greater the slice of the pie. LARGE SCALE ROLL-OUT There are now over 40,000 devices deployed, with the vast majority of the 50 or so UK police forces now using some mobile system or other. Devices of all shapes and sizes (PDAs, BlackBerrys, Toughbooks, detachable in-car Mobile Data Terminals), delivering all sorts of solutions (crime, intelligence, PNC, missing persons, command and control, e-mail, mapping – the list is long and comprehensive) are now in the hands of a large percentage of frontline police officers. Not bad going at all, but it’s much more than a numbers game – benefits realisation is, of course, the key.
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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY
that allow them to access the full range of databases and operational systems.” So where are we now and how far have we got to go to realise the full benefits of these devices? WHERE ARE WE NOW? Within UK policing there is a wide body of knowledge about how to implement a large number of mobile devices in a relatively short time frame. For example, some forces went from essentially nothing to 1,000+ devices in under six months. The technical challenges are well understood and the traditional barriers to usage relating to reliability, battery life, security, connectivity, ease of use, suitability for purpose and so forth have partly been eliminated by technological improvements and creative thinking. These developments mean that it is easier (but by no means straightforward) to provide officers with mobile technology that potentially meets their needs whilst out on the street. There has also been considerable investment in benefits management to assess whether the officer’s and the organisation’s needs are being met. Benefits identification and benefits reporting mechanisms are now well established allowing the NPIA to get a clear
picture of what is being achieved through the monthly reporting of stats. What these stats indicate is that whilst some forces are doing well, others are struggling. In the best case scenarios the majority of frontline officers are using their devices on a regular basis and this usage is translating into increased time on the streets, which should ultimately lead to a better service being provided to the public. On the flip side devices are being left in lockers, officers are disinterested, benefits are scant. Why the differences? OVERCOMING BARRIERS As with all complex projects there are common themes that impact on success such as insufficient executive buy-in, lack of a clear overarching vision, over-stretched underresourced project teams. There are also big differences between the systems being deployed – some are head and shoulders better than the rest in terms of usability and design features. But perhaps where forces are falling down the most is where not enough thought or resource is being invested in affecting behavioural and cultural change across the organisation. Whilst forces know that the change process is critical to the successful embedding of new technology, there has not been enough impetus to address this challenge. One might argue that there has been an underlying expectation that mobile systems would inevitably return significant benefits. Why wouldn’t they? Giving officers the tools to keep them out of the station and more visible to the public, whilst reducing administrative burden, is surely a winner? Well, it would be if it wasn’t for culture, confidence, expectations and all those other human quirks that influence behaviour. The police culture, any culture for that matter, can be likened to an elastic band. You can stretch it to where you want it to be, but when you let go it reverts to the way it used to be. That’s why we need to work hard to embed mobile systems, to permanently reshape the cultural elastic band. To do this we need to effectively engage the system users and develop new organisational processes that will support the new frontline working methods. SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION There are several good examples of where this has been done well; where champions’ and supervisors’ networks provide on-the-ground support for all; where training has focused on the why and the where, and not just the