The document summarizes a report on the Metropolitan Police's (Met) spending on technology. It finds that the Met has over 750 outdated systems and needs to cut its ICT budget by £60 million. It recommends that the Met roll out mobile devices to officers, introduce predictive policing techniques to allocate officers proactively, and develop policies for social media engagement. The Mayor's Office will need to identify funding for the significant upfront investment in new technology.

1. Smart policing
A review of the Met’s technology spending
BUDGET & PERFORMANCE COMMITTEE
INVESTIGATION – August 2013

2. 1
We held a series of public meetings with the Met, Mayor’s
Office for Policing and Crime and technology specialists
Our investigation examined the challenges facing the Met as it
tries to cut spending on technology as part of a 20% reduction
in overall spending by March 2016.

3. 2
The Met cannot afford to maintain out-dated and inefficient
systems. We believe the Met recognises the need to get a grip
on ICT spending – and highlight that the force could have been
more efficient, and crime lower, had this happened earlier.
The Met has over 750 separate systems put together over the last
40 years. Of these, 90% are expected to be redundant by 2015.

4. 3
In our report, we have identified three key technologies which
we believe would help the Met achieve this:
We believe that plans to cut the ICT budget by £60m are
ambitious but achievable, given previous overspending, and that
new technology can bring significant efficiencies.

5. 4
The Met are planning to roll out up to 20,000 devices to
officers over the coming year. We believe this is welcome but
warn that they must be implemented carefully to realise the
full benefits.
Mobile devices could allow officers to access information
directly from the Met’s central systems while on the beat.

6. 5
The Met should introduce similar technology in London
In Los Angeles the police department uses predictive mapping
techniques to spot likely crime hotspots and allocate officers
in advance of crimes being committed.
CREDIT: PredPol

7. @MPSinthesky has more than 50,000 followers, but the Met could
do more to develop coherent policies and guidelines to help other
officers interact with the public through social media.
6 Social media offers a cheap and effective platform to reach out to
communities.
CREDIT: @MPSinthesky

8. 7
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime should make it a priority
to identify how much funding is needed and where it will be found.
New technology is not cheap. It will need significant upfront
investment at a time when the Met’s overall budget is shrinking.

9. For more details about all the
recommendations in our report,
please visit:
www.london.gov.uk/assembly