There are 43 police forces in England and Wales, along with the British Transport Police and the separate police forces of Scotland and Northern Ireland. There are also non-police law enforcement agencies or bodies of constables not constituted as police forces. The number of police officers in England and Wales has fallen by over 20,000 between March 2010 and March 2018. There were over 122,000 police officers in March 2018. Including those from the British Transport Police and those on secondment the total could be estimated as 126,000 officers.
That is a large amount of people to regulate and support in terms of compliance and the consistency in which it is applied.
The UK police force not only has to be compliant in every way, it must set exemplary standards and constantly remain updated to changes in Statute, Acts, case law, international law and all changes to standards, procedures and policies that affect daily policing. On ICT Security alone there are numerous statutory requirements (such as The ACPO Community Security Policy incorporating HMG Security Policy Framework, ACPO and PIAB policies, HMG Information Assurance Standards, CESG Good Practice Guides and ISO/IEC27001) which illustrate the compliance load on police force management today.
Due to the fact that UK police forces are comprised of a wide range of specialisms and diverse skills,experience and knowledge so the range of compliance subjects is extensive and changes are frequent and updates can be required rapidly.
Digital policing is taking the excellence of policing defined and refined through the last 150 years and moving it into the new digital age. The public and criminals are increasingly digitally adept and it is essential that police forces adapt alongside so that they can respond fast to the new challenges of a technology-driven society.
Digital compliance technology has the potential to assist in revolutionising policing by supporting officers with far faster dissemination of new information that previous manual processes. Not only can any piece of information be disseminated to a specialist team of officers, teams handling an event, or indeed an entire force; the same information can now be disseminated to all forces simultaneously, thus uniting the police force digitally.
All officers in receipt can confirm their understanding of the information provided and consume any required training at any hour of the day or night. This type of approach allows for better benchmarking of standards, policy, procedure and training across the entire UK force.
Police forces encompass a very mobile workforce and are required to disseminate, consume and digest huge amounts of data constantly. The digital compliance approach by Signarus is very much aligned with underpinning the digital approach to police information, dissemination and comprehension that matches the dynamic needs of the teams within each force.
Add to this Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces, and since July 2017 the fire and rescue services, of England and Wales.
This key body independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire & rescue services – in the public interest. Consequently the ability of a police force to provide real-time audit information is critical. This is why the reporting and audit functionality included in Orchestra Read and Comply™ assists police forces effectively as part of their larger digital policing and reporting strategy.
Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of the Signarus approach for policing is that Signarus compliance solutions have been developed for the private sector. This ensures that police forces are using tried and tested solutions which rapidly reduces the risk in consuming new digital compliance technology without needing to develop in-house.
As important is the fact that our unique, flexible approach to digital compliance solutions is that they can be easily applied to non-specific compliance policing scenarios such as the issuing of guidelines, maps, diagrams and other digital content to mobile teams for almost any scenario.
For more information on how Signarus solutions enable and enhance your digital policing strategies, get in touch now on (UK) 020 7 788 9445.
