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Tech to cut red tape and leave police to police
Police review: Virtual courts and handheld tech key to swift justice

By Nick Heath

Published: Friday 08 February 2008

A shake-up of UK law enforcement promises to use technology to deal out more swift and efficient justice.

Virtual courts, handheld police computers and joined up crime-fighting computer systems will all be brought in under the review of policing by HM chief inspector of constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith accepted his recommendations saying his review will "cut unnecessary red tape and free up police officers to focus on protecting their communities".

Smith said technology will be used to:

• Pilot handheld devices for police officers to input information directly - expected to reduce the average time taken to record each stop and search from 25 minutes to six minutes.

• Streamline IT systems to make them more compatible. The Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Association of Police Authorities have commissioned the National Policing Improving Agency to review the police's IT strategy and report back in May.

• Scrap lengthy forms used to record stop and account - police will instead use Airwave police radio to record encounters.

The Home Office is already beginning to implement proposals to boost crime fighting tech from Flanagan's interim report in September last year.

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This includes setting up virtual courts via video links between police stations and magistrates courts.

This allows first hearings, and in some cases sentencing, to be heard without the need to produce a prisoner at court - cutting the average time between charging a suspect and a first hearing for bail cases from nine-and-a-half days to less than three-and-a-half hours.

Various time saving, crime-fighting devices are also being used, including video ID parades, live-scan electronic fingerprinting, wearable body cameras and a £50m capital fund to deliver 10,000 mobile data devices to officers by September.

A Police Federation of England and Wales spokesman said: "We are in favour in principle of the tech aspects of the review if measures such as using PDAs can be shown to reduce the bureaucracy. But we want to make sure that it is properly thought out and properly funded. Hopefully it can be worked out so it can be realised at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable timescale."

ACPO president, chief constable Ken Jones, praised the use of technology to reduce the administrative burden on police officers.

He said in a statement: "The review intelligently recognises that the answer to reducing bureaucracy is to use technology more effectively. If key processes are standardised then paperwork will diminish."