The Metropolitan Police are looking to partner with private companies in a bid to harness technology more effectively in order to fight crime and reduce costs. This is becoming more urgent as a result of the pressures on budgets resulting from reducing funding from Government.

Professor Martin Innes briefed the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee on a study carried out with City of London Police and City of London University, which highlighted the need to harness the assets, technology and software that the private sector has put in place to combat crime.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said advances in technology should mean that more officers could be deployed into front line policing, and emphasised the ability for greater mobile working to enable officers to conduct more work whilst away from the station.

One example of this could be using online case submission for forensic exhibits in cases. This can be achieved with the Lima Secure online portal – allowing officers to submit cases for forensic examination remotely, and allow cases to be automatically prioritised for processing and submission to a Forensic Manager. Ensuring capture of digital forensic case management information is vital to making the forensic process more efficient.