Digital technology can help prevent crime – and save money, says a tech trade body. As the nature of crime is changing so much crime prevention, it’s argued.
techUK has released a 12-page report, Digital Policing: The Future of Modern Crime Prevention. Taking its cue from the Home Officeโs Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, published in 2016, the report covers digital identities (to make life harder for fraudsters), online crime reporting, live streaming of video footage into control rooms, and ‘digital skills’.
It looks at how a technology-equipped and digitally skilled police, and businesses and citizens generally, can prevent crime. For example, going over to online reporting and submission of digital evidence (such as CCTV footage), could reduce police time spent on low-level reporting (which costs police about ยฃ130m a year) by at least 25 per cent. And the less time the police spend driving to collect DVDs of CCTV footage, the more time they can spend on the beat.
Similarly, live-streaming of CCTV footage into control rooms and monitoring stations could reduce the estimated ยฃ72m that false alarms cost each year. Remote verification of alarms would not only save time and money, it would improve situational awareness for first responders. As for the benefits, the report points to the Hatton Garden heist (when a responder did attend the intruder alarm, only to not spot the intrusion) or public safety emergencies.
techUKโs new report calls for:
– Use of online crime reporting tools to improve speed and efficiency crime reporting and reduce costs for police forces
– Live-streaming of video footage to save police time and money, and improve situational awareness;
– digital identity technologies to improve online safety and reduce the impact of cybercrime;
– Police adoption of cloud-based systems to improve accessibility to data and systems;
– Addressing the digital skills gap in policing;
– A smarter approach to procurement so that Government and police forces are better able to access innovation.
Henry Rex, Programme Manager for Justice and Emergency Services at techUK, says: โIn The Home Officeโs Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, the Government has rightly identified the significant role that tech can play in modernising how we tackle and prevent crime. With initiatives such as the Digital Policing Board and the Police Transformation Fund great strides have been made to ensure police are well equipped to tackle crime in the digital age. However, more needs to be done. Whether itโs accessing and embracing transformational technologies or developing the right digital skills set for officers, police must work with Government and industry to ensure they are best-placed to take advantage of innovative tech.
โItโs important to remember that crime prevention is not the sole responsibility of the police and Government. Businesses and citizens too must consider how they can use tech to reduce the impact of crime. By working in partnership to implement our recommendations and further invest in new technologies, we can ensure the police and the public have the resources, capabilities and digital skills to combat crime in this digital age.โ
Download the report at http://www.techuk.org/.
