Last week, I read a BBC News story (Met Police technology 'ineffective and outdated') about how the Metropolitan Police force in London, UK was being hampered in its fight against crime by out of date technologies. The news story discussed the London Assembly report (PDF) which highlighted the fact that most police officers had smart phones and tablets which they used in the personal lives, but at work they were reliant on legacy radio systems, and not only had to manually enter the same data into up to ten different systems.
Clearly there isn't going to be a simple solution to complex problem such as the Met's IT infrastructure, when much of the IT budget is spent on maintaining existing systems, reducing the amount available for investment in new infrastructure. However, as the report highlights, it's not hard to imagine how police officers would benefit from using secure mobile devices which would enable them to enter details of their investigations in real-time into handheld devices, providing them with immediate access to police resources and data, and reducing the amount of paper work and data re-entry.
Recent Comments