Market exploration: future policing

Summary

The 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 therefore exploring the technological landscape across a wide range of capabilities.

We 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.

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

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

Background

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 we 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, we 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, this work will help to identify potential future investment.

In addition, your 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.

What we don’t want

We are not interested in receiving ideas for literature reviews that respond to the requirements or sub-requirements of the solution.

• We are not interested in paper-based concepts.
• We are not interested in consultancy proposals.
• We are not interested in non-technical solutions or services which deviate from the described Data and Information, Automation, Augmentation or Behaviour themes.

This is a market engagement request for information exercise and we do not commit to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

How to submit a Capability Submission Form

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

You will be asked for a title and short summary of your innovation, followed by questions related to your organisation, capability and technology maturity. We are seeking to understand what and how much further development is required for a complete solution to meet requirements, or whether a combination of separate solutions is required. The information you provide will assist in developing a statement of requirements for potential future activities.

Submissions must be submitted by midday on 13 November 2020.

Please only provide details of one product/capability per submission. If you have a number of potential solutions, then please submit multiple forms. Please include the theme reference numbers that you are attempting to address in your title/s.

If you have any questions then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with ”future policing” in the subject line.

How we use your information

Information you provide to us in a Capability Submission, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in-confidence. By submitting a Capability Submission Form you are giving us permission to keep and use the information for our internal purposes, and to provide the information onwards, in-confidence, within UK Government. The Defence and Security Accelerator will not use or disclose the information for any other purpose, without first requesting permission to do so.