How cloud technologies are helping drive greater equality, flexibility, and sustainability, across UK police forces
Police forces today are focusing on ways to equip officers and staff with the right knowledge, skills, and tools, to deal with increasing workloads.
Alongside this, there is a desire to reduce the time spent on manual processes, hire more inclusively, and build sustainable practices for the future.
Cloud deployment has a part to play in enabling and supporting each of these goals. Using cloud technologies, police forces can access data and applications securely wherever they reside, helping to make roles more mobile, flexible, and inclusive.
Fast forward towards innovation
The 2013 Cloud First policy introduced by the government promoted the use of cloud-based solutions above all else when procuring new or existing services within the public sector. While many police forces in the UK still access applications and data on premises, the number is decreasing, highlighting a significant shift toward innovation.
In fact, according to our research, 91 per cent of UK police forces and services are now considering investment in cloud infrastructure and technologies – such as software, platform, or infrastructure as a service (SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS) – within the next 12 months.
As part of this, half of the responding forces are currently in the process of outsourcing or downsizing their physical IT infrastructure in favour of a cloud model, with a further 24% planning to do so in the next 12 months.
Delivering trusted and secure services
Whether accessing information at the station or in the field, cloud technologies allow officers and staff to do so securely on any device, enabling them to complete tasks faster without having to jump through hoops or access information in different systems using different logins.
Using the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) approach to provide secure remote access and blended working, police forces can enhance existing security levels. They can be confident that the information they create and access, is delivered in a secure and trusted manner, without the need for complex VPNs or cumbersome verification methods that take up valuable time.
By ensuring the security of information, police forces can not only work more flexibly on the go, but they can also promote trust when sharing information effectively between forces, with other law enforcement bodies, or outside agencies such as social services.
Driving equality in recruitment
The last autumn budget focused on a stronger economy for the British people. As part of this, it outlined significant support for the criminal justice system, including funding the recruitment of the final 8,000 police officers to reach the government’s commitment of hiring 20,000 new officers by 2023.
Of the extra 11,000+ recruits that have already been signed up across England and Wales, female officers accounted for 45%. More Black, Asian, and ethnic minority officers were also employed across forces than at any other time in the country’s history.
While we’ve certainly seen progress in diversifying police forces so far, there is still a way to go until policing becomes ‘more reflective of the people that we serve’, according to Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt.
As we’ve witnessed across other sectors, hybrid and cloud-based working models have made a significant difference in enhancing and balancing recruitment efforts. Back-office staff, or those that aren’t tied to a specific location, no longer need to worry about opportunities not being available to them and have much more flexibility in their roles.
A more sustainable future of policing
By prioritising cost-effective, flexible, scalable, and secure solutions, UK police forces can work more efficiently while also fulfilling many of the key areas outlined in the National Policing Digital Strategy.
By moving away from on-premise infrastructure, forces can also reduce carbon emissions. Because many of these cloud-based technologies can reside on any public cloud platform, the carbon footprint is shifted to advanced and more efficient third-party data centres, most of which are now carbon neutral. With no institution or service exempt from the pressures of prioritising ESG, this is a critical starting point to becoming more sustainable.
As UK police forces move further on their infrastructure optimisation and modernisation journeys, they must opt for the right solutions to help smooth their path and reduce capital expenditure, giving them more time to focus on their core goals – protecting the public and making communities safer.
Author:
Chris Oldham, Head of UK Public Sector, Citrix
Georgie Morgan
Georgie joined techUK as the Justice and Emergency Services (JES) Programme Manager in March 2020, then becoming Head of Programme in January 2022.