The UK Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have issued a request for information from academia and industry, exploring the technological landscape across a wide range of capabilities.

The UK Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) are undertaking a market assessment of the availability of cutting-edge solutions and innovative concepts in development that will transform UK policing and security over the next 10 to 20 year period.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are exploring the technological landscape across a wide range of capabilities.

They are keen to explore these areas further and develop a better understanding of the different technological approaches from academia and industry against the full range of commercial sectors.

The information will provide us with knowledge on the maturity of novel solutions that are in development and areas that potentially require further government investment.

The request for information, however, is not a commitment to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

The Home Office Science Commissioning Hub ensures the right science and technology (S&T) work is commissioned to meet the Home Office’s current and future challenges.

It identifies needs across the Home Office and its partners, builds a prioritised portfolio of requirements, tasks work and oversees delivery.

The NPCC enables Chief Constables and their forces to work together to improve policing for the public. It coordinates the operational response across the service to the threats faced in the UK, such as terrorism, organised crime and national emergencies. The NPCC is championing this market exploration.

The College of Policing (CoP) is the professional body for everyone who works for the police service in England and Wales. The CoP recently published the “Policing in England and Wales: Future Operating Environment 2040” report, which was used to help generate the themes in this market exploration.

This market exploration is part of a range of activity that the Home Office Science Commissioning Hub is conducting in order to understand how future innovations could improve the effectiveness and efficiency of police operations; improve confidence and public engagement; enhance the strategy of prevent, prepare, pursue and protect; and anticipate crimes and criminals of the future.

What they want?

This market exploration asks all of industry and academia for a summary of their innovative solutions and/or ideas requiring further development to help in the following themes:

1. Data & Information

a. Access to dark/encrypted, poor quality, legacy, identity and unformatted data.

b. Seamless sharing of large volumes of data between individuals, teams, forces and national/international partners, while recognising classifications. We are interested in both real time and stored data.

c. Preventing human cognitive overload of data and revealing actionable insights.

d. Preserving evidential standards, preventing and recognising digital or physical tampering.

e. Joining data systems that have become siloed over time (e.g. CCTV systems that are proprietary for commercial reasons).

2. Automation

a. Reducing the administrative demand on officers, including the automation of repetitive tasks.

b. Ensuring public safety by influencing and utilising the design of novel products in a way that allows them to self-limit or terminate if they are used dangerously or unlawfully

c. Applying National College of Policing’s Code of Ethics to automated systems and procedures (including AI).

3. Augmentation

a. Processing, displaying and responding to real time information surrounding an officer.

b. Increasing officer safety and/or allowing remote police action/response.

c. Making it easier for the public to report concerns and offences.

d. Identifying the emergence, and responding to the use, of augmentation of the self or enabling technologies for unlawful purposes.

e. Safer temporary disabling of augmented and autonomous technology.

4. Behaviour

a. Effective professional development, upskilling and training.

b. Identifying new crime types and addressing subversive technologies (e.g. deep fakes).

c. Increasing confidence in police actions, ensuring authenticity and confidence in messaging to the public, and encouraging community engagement.

d. Influencing environmental, individual or collective behaviour to promote trust and deter crime.

e. Understanding your HR and procurement efficiencies in the commercial sector.

In this market exploration activity, they are aiming to understand the maturity of technologies (including associated components) in the external marketplace and their potential applications. This means that consideration should be given to the ease of adoption, deployment and use (including open standards and legal/ethical underpinning).

Although this market exploration is not a commitment to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition, the work will help to identify potential future investment.

In addition, engagement and submissions will:

•  Inform the Police and Home Office of the technological opportunities available now and for the decades ahead.

•   Expose your innovative ideas to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

•    Influence technology policy and future procurement planning for UK law enforcement.

Responses to this Market Exploration must be submitted via the DASA submission service, for which you will need to register.

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