Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for SussexCSSaunders
A presentation delivered by Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex at the Police Foundation's annual conference 'Policing and Justice in a Digital Age' on how video-enabled justice has improved efficiency and brought cost savings across the criminal justice system.
This is the presentation delivered by Vladimiro Sassone, The Director of Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security at the University of Southampton. Vladimiro is also a professor of Computer Science in ECS (Electronics and Computer Science), also at the University of Southampton.
Fundraising regulator: A New System of Self-RegulationNICVA
A presentation from the Fundraising Regulator on their role as the new Fundraising Regulator: Upholding the Code of Fundraising Practice and implementing the Fundraising Preference Service.
Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for SussexCSSaunders
A presentation delivered by Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex at the Police Foundation's annual conference 'Policing and Justice in a Digital Age' on how video-enabled justice has improved efficiency and brought cost savings across the criminal justice system.
This is the presentation delivered by Vladimiro Sassone, The Director of Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security at the University of Southampton. Vladimiro is also a professor of Computer Science in ECS (Electronics and Computer Science), also at the University of Southampton.
Fundraising regulator: A New System of Self-RegulationNICVA
A presentation from the Fundraising Regulator on their role as the new Fundraising Regulator: Upholding the Code of Fundraising Practice and implementing the Fundraising Preference Service.
Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales - launch presentationsThePoliceFoundation
This major, independent review sets a long-term strategic direction for a police service capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. See www.policingreview.org.uk.
Now in its 5th year, the conference has established itself as the largest annual Digital Energy summit in the country: the event brought together senior IT, Digital and business leaders, providing a unique forum for knowledge exchange, discussion and high-level networking. The programme explored the use of Information Technology in driving tangible outcomes across the organisation, looking at key trends and providing practical insight from an array of industry leaders.
The Metropolitan Police Office [MPO], Ranipokhari, Kathmandu was established in 2006 AD. as the primary law enforcement agency for Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts of the Kathmandu Valley.
UK Local Government: collaboration, personalisation and online servicesO2 Business UK
Collaboration, personalisation and online services: they're amongst the key digital issues for councils across the UK. Here we explore what's on the agenda for Local Government when it comes to addressing these issues, some of the key insight from the Digital Communities Report, and some examples of how some councils are using digital to innovate and improve citizen engagement.
For more information, please visit: o2.co.uk/localgovernment
Matthew Hough Clewes | Cyber Crime and its ImpactsPro Mrkt
Matthew Hough Clewes from the West Midlands Police presenting Cyber Crime and its Impacts at the Midlands Cyber Security Expo 2019 #midscybersecurity19
Cambridgeshire digital public services #smartcities #opendatadanclarkeCCC
A presentation for the 'Internet of Things' meet up in Cambridge covering Cambridgeshire's work on digital service delivery, including Smart Cities and Open Data
Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales - launch presentationsThePoliceFoundation
This major, independent review sets a long-term strategic direction for a police service capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. See www.policingreview.org.uk.
Now in its 5th year, the conference has established itself as the largest annual Digital Energy summit in the country: the event brought together senior IT, Digital and business leaders, providing a unique forum for knowledge exchange, discussion and high-level networking. The programme explored the use of Information Technology in driving tangible outcomes across the organisation, looking at key trends and providing practical insight from an array of industry leaders.
The Metropolitan Police Office [MPO], Ranipokhari, Kathmandu was established in 2006 AD. as the primary law enforcement agency for Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts of the Kathmandu Valley.
UK Local Government: collaboration, personalisation and online servicesO2 Business UK
Collaboration, personalisation and online services: they're amongst the key digital issues for councils across the UK. Here we explore what's on the agenda for Local Government when it comes to addressing these issues, some of the key insight from the Digital Communities Report, and some examples of how some councils are using digital to innovate and improve citizen engagement.
For more information, please visit: o2.co.uk/localgovernment
Matthew Hough Clewes | Cyber Crime and its ImpactsPro Mrkt
Matthew Hough Clewes from the West Midlands Police presenting Cyber Crime and its Impacts at the Midlands Cyber Security Expo 2019 #midscybersecurity19
Cambridgeshire digital public services #smartcities #opendatadanclarkeCCC
A presentation for the 'Internet of Things' meet up in Cambridge covering Cambridgeshire's work on digital service delivery, including Smart Cities and Open Data
A presentation given by Will Linden, Acting Director of the Violence Reduction Unit, Scotland for the Police Foundation's Annual Conference 2017 'Networked Policing: effective collaboration between the police, partners and communities'.
Networked policing - the Greater Manchester Experience CSSaunders
A presentation by Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of Greater Manchester Police given at the Police Foundation's annual conference 2017 'Networked Policing: effective collaboration between the police, partners and communities'.
Joining up what we've got or designing for what is needed?CSSaunders
A presentation by David Kelly, Programme Manager (Place-Based Integration), Greater Manchester Police given at the Police Foundation's Annual Conference 2017.
Networked policing: learning and working across organisational boundaries to ...CSSaunders
A presentation given by Professor Adam Crawford, Director of Leeds Social Sciences Unit, University of Leeds at the Police Foundation's annual conference 2017 'Networked Policing: effective collaboration between the police, partners and communities'.
Partnership and prevention in an era of reform: evidence from ScotlandCSSaunders
A presentation from Professor Nick Fyfe, Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing and Research delivered at the Police Foundation's annual conference 2017 'Networked Policing: effective collaboration between the police, partners and communities'.
Many ways to support street children.pptxSERUDS INDIA
By raising awareness, providing support, advocating for change, and offering assistance to children in need, individuals can play a crucial role in improving the lives of street children and helping them realize their full potential
Donate Us
https://serudsindia.org/how-individuals-can-support-street-children-in-india/
#donatefororphan, #donateforhomelesschildren, #childeducation, #ngochildeducation, #donateforeducation, #donationforchildeducation, #sponsorforpoorchild, #sponsororphanage #sponsororphanchild, #donation, #education, #charity, #educationforchild, #seruds, #kurnool, #joyhome
Jennifer Schaus and Associates hosts a complimentary webinar series on The FAR in 2024. Join the webinars on Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, eastern.
Recordings are on YouTube and the company website.
https://www.youtube.com/@jenniferschaus/videos
Russian anarchist and anti-war movement in the third year of full-scale warAntti Rautiainen
Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war activities are presented, as well as strategies of support for political prisoners, and modest successes in supporting their struggles.
Thumbnail picture is by MediaZona, you may read their report on anti-war arson attacks in Russia here: https://en.zona.media/article/2022/10/13/burn-map
Links:
Autonomous Action
http://Avtonom.org
Anarchist Black Cross Moscow
http://Avtonom.org/abc
Solidarity Zone
https://t.me/solidarity_zone
Memorial
https://memopzk.org/, https://t.me/pzk_memorial
OVD-Info
https://en.ovdinfo.org/antiwar-ovd-info-guide
RosUznik
https://rosuznik.org/
Uznik Online
http://uznikonline.tilda.ws/
Russian Reader
https://therussianreader.com/
ABC Irkutsk
https://abc38.noblogs.org/
Send mail to prisoners from abroad:
http://Prisonmail.online
YouTube: https://youtu.be/c5nSOdU48O8
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/libertarianlifecoach/episodes/Russian-anarchist-and-anti-war-movement-in-the-third-year-of-full-scale-war-e2k8ai4
Presentation by Jared Jageler, David Adler, Noelia Duchovny, and Evan Herrnstadt, analysts in CBO’s Microeconomic Studies and Health Analysis Divisions, at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Summer Conference.
A process server is a authorized person for delivering legal documents, such as summons, complaints, subpoenas, and other court papers, to peoples involved in legal proceedings.
Understanding the Challenges of Street ChildrenSERUDS INDIA
By raising awareness, providing support, advocating for change, and offering assistance to children in need, individuals can play a crucial role in improving the lives of street children and helping them realize their full potential
Donate Us
https://serudsindia.org/how-individuals-can-support-street-children-in-india/
#donatefororphan, #donateforhomelesschildren, #childeducation, #ngochildeducation, #donateforeducation, #donationforchildeducation, #sponsorforpoorchild, #sponsororphanage #sponsororphanchild, #donation, #education, #charity, #educationforchild, #seruds, #kurnool, #joyhome
How police and crime commissioners can unlock innovation
1. How PCCs can help unlock
innovation
Katy Bourne
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner
Chair Police ICT Company
How PCCs can help unlock innovation
Katy Bourne
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner
4. • National RJ re-offending rate = 26%
Sussex rate is 18%
• National average for RJ outcomes =20
Sussex delivered 233
28,000 victims and 3,000 offenders
offered information about RJ in Sussex
Victim satisfaction rates 100%
Innovation with offenders-
Restorative Justice
6. Safe Space Funding Network
•Best commissioning practice
•£600k
•15 innovative projects
•Supporting families of victims of
CSE
•Measurable outcomes
• Drive Project targets perpetrators
• Sexual abuse reduced 92%
• Harassment reduced 82%
• Coercive behaviour reduced 59%
Innovation in victims’
funding-
7. Innovation in tackling Stalking-
Stalking often dismissed as a nuisance not a
crime….
Stalking was involved in
94% of 358 domestic homicides
Veritas Justice has trained
650 Sussex officers
and prosecutors
300% increase in reporting
3 x cases now solved
8. Police officers can spend over five hours
per case giving evidence
Video Enabled Justice
will save time and money
Innovation in accessing justice-
Video Enabled Justice
9. VIDEO ENABLED JUSTICE
£11m of Home Office
funding secured by the
Sussex Police and Crime
Commissioner
Increasing video utilisation
in the delivery of Criminal
Justice across:
oFirst Appearance in Police
Custody
oLive Links – Police
Witness
oRemote Links for
Witnesses and Victims
oPrison to Court Video
Links
VEJ is integral to the wider
Justice Transformation
programme
9
SURRE
Y
LONDO
N
KENT
SUSSEX
10. • A Digital world
• Different types of crime
• New approaches and structures
• Different skills mix
• Transformation Policing Vision 2025
• New IT enabled capabilities
• Implement 21st century technologies
• Leverage scale, buy smarter
• Encourage compliance (early
adopters attract others!)
Strategic Vision for ICT
Innovation in Police ICT-
Chair of Police ICT Company
11. Innovation in front line tools-
Drones
Digital evidence chain
Mobile data access
ANPR
Body worn video
Hotspots mapping
Predictive policing
Biometrics
Artificial Intelligence
12. Innovation beyond technology
Policing culture
Collaboration and partnerships
Police responsibilities
Balance expectations of
visibility with capability
How PCCs can help unlock innovation.
The key to understanding the positive impact of Police and Crime Commissioners is in the name: The Police part is where we have a duty to ensure effective and efficient policing-delivered by Chief Constables.
The crime part embraces the wider community safety and prevention role.
I prefer to think of the Commissioner part of the title as referring to the innovation, enabling and convening opportunities that PCCs drive…that sounds so much more practical than Tsar!
After six years in the role, I am increasingly confident that the model of a democratically elected individual holding police chiefs to account is more effective, dynamic and transparent than the police authority system it replaced, and better at articulating public concerns.
I’m also confident that we bring fresh perspective to policing issues and a constructive impatience with the status quo.
PCCs can and have been helping unlock innovation in seven areas- which I call the SEVEN Ps.
Perception- how do we police by consent in the digital age and balance sufficient visibility to maintain public confidence? Can we hope to manage public expectation? and is the image and reputation of policing a victim of the drive for transparency?
People and police culture: Is policing still too defensive of its legacy and its roots in Peels principles? Is policing open to outside ideas? Do we have the right skills mix to maximise capability?
Performance: Does a satisfactory police performance framework exist? Can we measure police performance when it is inter-dependent on partners and agencies?
Partnerships: What help should PCCs and police expect from publicly funded partners?
Procurement: Do police buy well? Can PCCs improve further still?
Productivity: Is there still room for efficiencies and savings and better VFM?
Potential: How will all the above plus innovation and technology add to capacity, capability, improved justice and customer service and reputation?
We can be proud of our policing traditions but they don’t match the demands of crime in the digital era that have created the need to police what I call the Digital Beat.
The digital world is real and it can harm us as well as help us. In our rush to digitise everything for convenience and profit we have thrown caution to the wind.
In the real world we have nation states, rules of law and responsibility, and we have developed legislation and policing models accordingly over time.
Once, digital information was strings of zeros and ones, but in the last ten years irregular data has grown exponentially through our careless interactions on social media.
Policing the digital beat can’t be done at a walking pace, because the world is creating data in unimaginable volumes.
So what should policing in the digital beat look like? Do we have the skillsets and the mind sets to police the virtual world? At the moment, police are heavily dependent on specialist contractors or companies to trawl the dark web.
Do we actually need more fully trained visible police officers patrolling neighbourhoods, or do we really need more digitally competent people with appropriate policing knowledge to up our game against cyber criminals, paedophiles, hackers and extortionists.
I also wanted to show that PCC’s have unlocked innovation in other areas, improving existing and undervalued approaches such as preventing re-offending and giving victims back their confidence.
RJ.
One of the areas I am very proud of in Sussex is our excellent work in Restorative Justice.
The Sussex Restorative Justice Partnership was formed in September 2014 to pull together more than 20 agencies delivering restorative services to victims and offenders of crime, including the National Probation Service, Her Majesty’s Prison Service, Sussex Police and Victim Support.
I put a team in place in my office to drive the partnership forward and I was delighted when it was awarded the Investment Strategy of the Year at the inaugural Public Finance Innovation Awards 2017 for its impressive range of outcomes after only two-and-a-half years.
Before this partnership was formed, restorative justice was inconsistent across Sussex. Three-and-a-half years later, we have a dedicated group of practitioners, criminal justice agencies and voluntary organisations, all working together to ensure both victims and offenders are offered the chance to access a restorative service.
The diversity of the social outcomes, ranging from victims to homeowners to whole community regeneration is impressive.
The national re-offending rate for people going through RJ is 26%. In Sussex it is 18%
Last year the national average for RJ partnerships outcomes was 20. In Sussex it was 233.
I’m delighted and proud that more than 28,000 victims and more than 3000 offenders have been provided with information about restorative justice and that satisfaction rates for victims were kept at 100% last year. That is innovation and dedication in action.
Safer in Sussex
Some of the most effective innovations in tackling and preventing crime come from within our communities themselves, where local people who know the issues, and their neighbours often need relatively small sums to deliver disproportionately big impacts. That’s why I have been so committed to making my discretionary community safety fund regularly open for applications from voluntary groups and charities.
Since launching the Safer in Sussex funding scheme in December 2013, I have allocated nearly £1.5 million to support almost 300 crime reduction and community safety initiatives.
To qualify, projects have to show how they will increase or promote community safety within the local community and have a positive long-term impact. They should also be able to offer evidence to show how it helps to prevent offending and reduce re-offending.
The funding has also supported local programmes which helps rehabilitate ex-offenders so they can re-enter the local communities – reducing their risk of re-offending.
Three examples of innovative projects I have just funded include:
• Antifreeze, which is a project run by the Off the Fence Trust. This supports those who have struggled with life-destroying addictions, mental health issues, job loss, family breakdown, violence and bereavement which have led to homelessness. The team and volunteers work to restore self-worth, confidence and independence, and help to address welfare and financial issues.
• Streetlight UK, is a charity that provides a specialist, frontline support service to vulnerable groups of women in Crawley and the surrounding areas, involved in and affected by prostitution and sexual exploitation.
Only this week, I was delighted to be at the screening of a unique film by Band Of Brothers, another PCC-funded group- who were celebrating their award winning work to help troubled and disaffected men learn new skills and reintegrate them into a sense of family and belonging and responsibility and to avoid crime.
Funding for each of these and the other 300 projects over six years has undoubtedly helped prevent and reduce crime and the demand on police time.
Victims:
As I mentioned at the start, PCCs have stimulated and challenged the victim’s services provider market and encouraged providers to redesign services from the perspective of victims in a bottom-up rather than top-down process.
My office developed a unique quality assurance and performance framework that is now the model for other areas around the country. This builds on the best practice of commissioning services over the past four years that ensures there are measurable outcomes for victims who need help and support.
This year, I have gone even further and launched the Safe Space Funding network backed by £600k of funding. We have 15 innovative projects to support victims of crime and their families across Sussex, including support for the families of sexually exploited children, a legal firm providing free advice, and kick boxing-based empowerment sessions for women who have experienced violence or abuse.
The aim of a creating a specific funding network was to be able to more closely monitor the benefits to victims, witnesses and the community across the county and ensure that the services I commission are the best they can be, as promised in my Police & Crime plan.
This is a more intelligent way of safeguarding victims because there is now a unique focus on supporting not just the victims themselves but also their closest family members. This is another example of PCC offices looking further over the horizon than police have the time and capacity to.
Drive:
I am also the lead commissioner for the unique Drive Project – which is run in three forces in England and Wales. This aims to change the behaviour of domestic abuse perpetrators (with incentives and constraints) whereas other projects simply provide help to victims. Thus far, Drive is reducing sexual abuse by 92% and harassment by 82% and reducing jealous and controlling behaviour by 59% in the group of 170 perpetrators.
Drive is an example of challenging the conventional model designed around making domestic abuse victims change their lives, and puts measures in place to make the perpetrator stop.
Stalking.
It’s interesting how people react when I mention stalking. Many people think stalking is confined to spurned lovers or obsessed fans: sad, slightly pathetic but relatively harmless.
Although reports of stalking have rocketed, it is still regarded as a nuisance rather than a crime. I recently spoke to the mother of a young woman who is being stalked. The advice she received from police was to block the perpetrator from social media. Unfortunately, closing our eyes to stalking doesn’t stop it.
Victims of stalking say it is the cumulative effect that is so frightening and debilitating and, when they report incidents, police have looked for a specific offence, rather than connecting reports and recognizing a pattern of harmful, dangerous behaviour.
Prosecutors must understand the range of offences that a stalker can commit. The judiciary would benefit from a better understanding of stalking behaviours and their impact and as PCC, I have been raising awareness with criminal justice partners and through regular media appearances.
Stalking became a crime in 2012 but, over the following three years, only 240 crimes of stalking were recorded by Sussex Police. Two years ago, I asked if there was a need for a specialist service in Sussex to support victims of stalking. I commissioned a pilot and discovered that:
•70% of cases were stalked by an ex-intimate partner
•30% of people were stalked by so-called strangers
•50% of cases include police involvement
•80% of cases involve an online stalking element
Disappointingly, charges were only pursued in one of 21 stalking cases.
A comprehensive response was required so I provided a two-year £92,500 grant, co-commissioned with Sussex Police, to fund a local specialist service provided by Veritas Justice.
Since August 2017, over 650 police officers and professionals have been trained by Veritas, including 18 prosecutors. I invested a large part of last year’s precept rise into the Public Protection Unit. We also now have a multi-agency stalking and harassment governance group.
The results speak for themselves. Last year, Sussex Police saw an average 300% increase in reports of stalking and three times as many cases have been solved compared to the previous 12 months.
As Police and Crime Commissioner, I bring independent, external scrutiny to policing. I have also commissioned HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to conduct a thorough review of how Sussex Police deals with stalking to identify where improvement is required.
Experts estimate that almost five million people may become victims of stalking every year, meaning that in Sussex, with a population of 1.6 million, there could be around 128,000 people being stalked.
One dictionary definition of stalking is ‘stealthy hunting of an unwitting prey’ and that type of stalking usually culminates with fatal violence. In a study of 358 domestic homicides by the University of Gloucester in 2017, 94% of murders involved an element of stalking.
We clearly need to understand this phenomena better which is why I have commissioned research by the Centre for Learning and Innovation in Public Protection about how different agencies currently deal with stalking.
The work will develop a stalker response flowchart to show what happens when stalking is reported and list possible responses. A Stalking Risk Profile will examine the motivation of offenders and what interventions work best. From this should emerge a common language which can be applied to stalking activity for use by both victims and professionals.
Of particular interest to police and magistrates is the development of a Breach Management Model, consistent across Sussex courts, which would show the options and sanctions available.
Changes to existing legislation are also required. While stalking has been a criminal offence for the last six years, there is still no specific legal definition, meaning that police and prosecutors are still using harassment legislation, malicious communications and the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 to assemble credible and successful prosecutions.
I will be making proposals for discussion by the wider criminal justice service, and I hope that my own six year experience of being stalked and harassed online will show that I have a good idea of what stalking victims endure.
Innovation in accessing justice
Access to Justice: Six years in this role has shown me that many victims and witnesses will not attend court to give evidence because the process is intimidating and time consuming.
Police officers can also spend a huge part of their shift travelling and waiting to give evidence and if witnesses and victims fail to attend that time can be completely wasted.
Video evidence already works in several police force areas so my office had led a pilot into scaling up the benefits, and recently secured £11m from the Home Office to put connect 300 video end points across London and the South East alongside a co-ordination service for defendants, their legal representatives, for police officers and witnesses.
In order to ‘scale up’ VEJ we needed a committed partnership across a region. I am delighted that the VEJ programme has the commitment of criminal justice agencies in London, Sussex, Surrey and Kent.• The use of video is not new. Indeed, Kent Police have been at the vanguard of using video technology. However, various agencies and Forces have previously been unable to maximise its potential because the tools needed to industrialise the scale and make this a seamless experience were not in place.
Innovation through convening and partnerships
VEJ is being delivered in conjunction with the national HMCTS video reform hearing project. It will proactively manage and maximise the use of video technology in the delivery of criminal justice in London and the South East.
VEJ is looking at how better use of video technology can be used in 4 main areas
First Appearance Hearings from Police Custody
Live links for police officers giving evidence at summary trials (magistrates Court)
Prison to court video links
Remote links for witnesses and victims giving evidence at summary trials
Whilst the first phase of the VEJ project is being successfully embedded across Kent, we have already proved the benefits of video for officers here in Sussex where 14 Live Links video end points have been installed for officers to give evidence remotely.
This has saved up to 3000 hours of police time across 550 trials, averaging a saving of 4.5hours per officer per court appearance.
A special Live Link facility has been established specifically for vulnerable people and we have touching testimonials from people too frail or too scared to travel to a court who have had the satisfaction of being able to give evidence remotely.
When the VEJ programme is fully rolled out, many more victims and witnesses will have the same opportunity to access justice, making the experiencing less daunting and more convenient and saving time and money.
The multi-agency partnership required to test and deliver something as radical as VEJ requires patience and diplomacy and a clear understanding of the culture and constraints of each organisation. I am very grateful to all of them for their trust in the VEJ team led by my office as we all work towards a common aim of better access to justice for all.
Innovation in Police ICT
I am currently Chair of the Police ITC Company which is already rationalising procurement and will realise savings for individual forces and the taxpayer. I believe a private/public partnership approach for police IT has a good chance of securing and integrating the technology policing needs.
By working across all forces and existing national policing platforms, we have a real chance to transform our whole policing approach and not just to modernise existing processes. The ICT Company is supporting the three main police modernisation work streams:
Police Transformation Fund
• Providing the resource and funding gap between BAU and Future
Digital Policing Portfolio
• Contact, Investigation, Evidence
• Centrally coordinated programmes
• Delivering common capabilities - cost effectively
National Enablers Programmes
• Productivity, Identity Management, National Management Centre
• Route to role-based access
• Collaboration - locally, regionally, nationally
Innovation in frontline tools:
There are some well proven examples of innovative technology in use on the policing front line.
Drones are already being successfully used in search and rescue and public order and in natural disasters and for surveillance, and I’m pleased that a Sussex Assistant Chief Constable is the national lead.
Also led by our own Sussex Chief Constable Giles York, there is a shift to create a sustainable digital evidence chain, and Digital First is working closely with our Video enabled Justice partnership.
Sussex and other forces are also experimenting with Hotspots mapping, Predictive policing and exploiting Artificial Intelligence.
I have seen for myself the logistical challenge faced by digital forensic officers having to analyse and log millions of indecent images of children for example, and having to determine their “severity”… on just one suspect’s laptop. With some much data to look through, AI will increasingly become an essential part of the policing toolkit.
Digital technology is already enabling criminals so we must ensure that technology transforms policing to tackle new crime trends. Commercial companies seize on the latest innovations and monetise them immediately, often leaving regulators behind in the process. In the UK, although we are a world leader in digital innovation, Government services and our Police are more risk adverse and we cannot allow ourselves to get left behind the curve.
Sussex Police have recently completed changes to local policing and it was very clear that in order to maximise police officer time in the community, they needed to make fewer journeys to police stations. All frontline officers have now been issued with a mobile data handset (smartphone) that is loaded with apps and software that previously were station-based.
Body worn videos have quickly proved very popular with officers and in Sussex we have seen the recordings used in evidence when female officers were attacked by a hammer- wielding fugitive.
ANPR is successfully being used to identify suspects on our roads, from insurance avoiders to people and drug traffickers and this year we ran a campaign in conjunction with DVLA assets that managed to identify an uninsured and untaxed driving instructor, and then pinged his colleague as untaxed as well when he came to collect him. The BBC coverage of the cars going on the low loader gave local people and officers a great deal of satisfaction.
In Sussex we will have a turnover of 800 officers in the next four years and, as we recruit younger, tech savvy entrants, we must capitalise on their digital knowledge.
Innovation beyond technology
As we build the appropriate and necessary technology to underpin our justice system, we need to remember who it is for. Although police face-to-face time with the public will inevitably change, maintaining trust and consent is still fundamental.
With tax raising powers through the police element of council tax, PCCs can still influence the type of policing that their communities want.
In Sussex, although we are seen as a leading digitally enabled force, the public want visible local policing which I have asked the Chief Constable to strengthen with increases in the precept and £17m from reserves.
At the same time, I am talking to the public every week about the need to police the physical and digital beat, and reminding them that the policing they see is not all the policing they get to keep them safe.
The public perception of policing is rooted in myths and anecdotes and TV drama, so by engaging with the public in person and through the media, PCCs can be a key part of changing the narrative and bringing the public along with the modern policing approach required to tackle all crime types and provide a measure of prevention and reassurance.
I know that all of you here today and Police forces across the country are part of that modernisation agenda, from recruitment, training and performance management to embracing social media and public engagement and consultation.
I do believe that PCCs can help unlock innovation in policing, and that is not just about technology:
it’s about policing culture,
It’s about collaboration and partnerships;
It’s about recognising where police responsibilities should begin and should end,
and it’s about managing public expectation and confidence by shifting the focus from police visibility to police capability.
Thank you.
If you have you any questions I’d be happy to take them for the next five minutes.
