Smart Policing: Review of the Met's IT spending & crime reduction

Smart policing A review of the Met’s technology spending

BUDGET & PERFORMANCE COMMITTEE

INVESTIGATION – August 2013

1 We held a series of public meetings with the Met, Mayor’s

Office for Policing and Crime and technology specialists

Our investigation examined the challenges facing the Met as it

tries to cut spending on technology as part of a 20% reduction in overall spending by March 2016.

2 The Met cannot afford to maintain out-dated and inefficient

systems. We believe the Met recognises the need to get a grip

on ICT spending – and highlight that the force could have been

more efficient, and crime lower, had this happened earlier.

The Met has over 750 separate systems put together over the last

40 years. Of these, 90% are expected to be redundant by 2015.

3 In our report, we have identified three key technologies which

we believe would help the Met achieve this:

We believe that plans to cut the ICT budget by £60m are

ambitious but achievable, given previous overspending, and that

new technology can bring significant efficiencies.

4

The Met are planning to roll out up to 20,000 devices to

officers over the coming year. We believe this is welcome but

warn that they must be implemented carefully to realise the

full benefits.

Mobile devices could allow officers to access information

directly from the Met’s central systems while on the beat.

5 The Met should introduce similar technology in London

In Los Angeles the police department uses predictive mapping

techniques to spot likely crime hotspots and allocate officers

in advance of crimes being committed.

CREDIT: PredPol

@MPSinthesky has more than 50,000 followers, but the Met could

do more to develop coherent policies and guidelines to help other officers interact with the public through social media.

6

Social media offers a cheap and effective platform to reach out to

communities.

CREDIT: @MPSinthesky

7 The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime should make it a priority

to identify how much funding is needed and where it will be found.

New technology is not cheap. It will need significant upfront

investment at a time when the Met’s overall budget is shrinking.

For more details about all the recommendations in our report, please visit:

www.london.gov.uk/assembly