Technology at the top

EU Infrastructure speaks to the Metropolitan Police Service CIO, Ailsa Beaton, about the challenges and opportunities of IT communications at the largest force in the UK.

EUI. What are the main challenges facing the Metropolitan Police, and how are you tackling these challenges?
AB. There are four main challenges in my opinion. The first and the most important is providing the Metropolitan Police Service with the appropriate tools to support effective and responsive policing, and we do that into three different ways. One is to advise our police colleagues on emerging technologies and the uses criminals may want to make of those technologies. Then we deploy suitable technology ourselves in two different ways: first, is in the prevention and detection of crime; and the other is in the more traditional way. which is to support our administrative processes, back office processes and the like.

The second challenge is keeping our systems and infrastructure going 24 hours a day and keeping them secure and able to cope with large increases in demand, whether they used to support planned activities like Notting Hill Carnival or unplanned terrorist incidents, for example. The third challenge has got to be cost and being cost effective, particularly as budgets tighten in these more difficult times.

The last one I would pick out is probably around the green agenda, which is meeting energy efficiency requirements, while still keeping all the technologies going that the MPS requires.

EUI. What role does improving communication technologies have at the Metropolitan Police Service?
AB. Communication technologies have an enormous role in many capacities. The most important technology is around the mobile space and using IT to give police officers immediate access to the information required for their job, as opposed to requiring them to come back to an office or a particular point to get the information they need or to ask the questions they need.

EUI. And what are you doing in the mobile space at the moment?
AB. We already have mobile devices in our vehicles that are used both as sources of information and to dispatch officers. We provide mapping technologies so officers can find out where they’re going as well as access to the police national computer, so that checks that can be made when officers are on the move.

Later this year we will be rolling out PDA devices to officers. This will give officers on the street the ability to access MPS systems and to receive messages and information when they are out and about.

EUI. In your opinion, what kind of technologies can be implemented to achieve greater efficiency so that less time is spent on paperwork?
AB. The use of technology to make people more efficient just isn’t enough on its own. What we have done in the Met in terms of mobile devices very much started off with first principles about what the officers need to do. Technology is only part of the solution - to get greater efficiency processes need to be changed as well.

EUI. And do you believe GIS solutions be applied to improve efficiency? And if so, how?
AB. Yes, definitely. We have a new strategy for using GIS, and we know that we can make efficiency savings by allowing people on-screen access to information, particularly GIS solutions. And it’s also very helpful to us in the work that we do - using GIS solutions to gather important information on the whereabouts of an offence is critical to us.

So part of it is about cost and time efficiency, but a lot of it is about improving the quality of information that allows us to bring more offenders to justice.

EUI. Data security is a huge issue in IT for all industries. What strategies do you employ to ensure that all data remains secure at the Met?
AB. Data security is important for everyone, but it’s particularly important to us to secure public confidence as well as keeping information we’ve got confidential. The main component of our strategy is that security is sponsored at board level. We have information security policies and standard operating procedures and we also take advice from other government bodies in terms of best practice and security, as well as having our own experts who are professionals in that field to make sure we’ve got the best advice.

Having got that in place, we make sure that all our systems are subject to an information assurance process and that any risks are identified, and if they’re not mitigated, any residual risks are properly managed. We do that with all technologies that we deploy but before we deploy anything new we will look at the security implications.

EUI. You are also involved with the National Policing Improvement Agency on a number of projects, including replacing the police national computer system with a new national database. What difference would this new national database make, and how will it be implemented?
AB. My involvement with the National Policing Improvement Agency is as Information Management lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers. I look at the new police national database from a user’s point of view in terms of what business benefits it will provide to us.

As well as replacing the police national computer, the big change for the new police national database will be the inclusion of intelligence, expanding upon information that the police national computer has at the moment, so it gives us improved capabilities in sharing information across the police service.

EUI. What is the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe like in terms of IT police processes? And have you been able to learn anything from any other countries?
AB. Yes, the UK’s relationship with Europe in terms of the European Union is handled through the National Policing Improvement Agency, as they are the people who are very closely linked to the EU development programmes. But the Met also has very strong links with police services across the world, and I have contact through that with my peers in other services.

We do try to learn from each other, and only a few months ago I was involved in a forum that included chief information officers from law enforcement agencies from all around the EU, talking about the things that we’re doing to meet the problems of law enforcement. And obviously in a forum like that there are some things where we’re ahead of the field, as it were, and can share what we’re doing in the Met with other organisations. But there are other areas where colleagues from other countries have done some innovative work that we will look at in detail and see whether it can be of value to us here.

So I think we have a good relationship, and this means we can find out what each other are doing and share our best practice.

EUI. In terms of the future, what are your key areas of focus, and are there any other technologies in particular that you’re excited about seeing implemented?
AB. In terms of the future, the big thing for me is going to be the London 2012 Olympics where the Metropolitan Police Service has the lead for security. And so I have the responsibility of making sure that we’ve got the systems in place to discharge those security responsibilities. That’s the big thing on my horizon.

And in terms of new technologies coming forward, there are two I would highlight. One is in the mobility space. The more information we can give to officers when and where they’re doing their job, the better we can support them.

And the other one I would pick out is our ability to engage with the communities we serve, using the internet-based technologies that are now available. We need to take advantage of these technologies to make our engagement with communities the best it can be because that’s what we’re here for, to serve the people of London and to do that well we need high levels of interaction.

The Met in numbers
31,000 Police Officers
14,000 Police Staff
4000 Police Community Support Officers
2500 Special Constables
414 Traffic Wardens
180 Police Stations
32 London Boroughs