Over a quarter of police IT budgets spent on digital transformation

28% of police IT budgets were invested into digital transformation last year, according to figures by Intercity Technology, highlighting the drive towards a more connected and collaborative future for policing

The enterprise mobility and IT specialist issued a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to police forces in England and Wales to ascertain where 2018 IT budgets were spent, and identify the collaboration tools currently used.

Of the 37 respondents, 54% also revealed that they are planning to adopt a cloud-first strategy within the next five years, with several more highlighting that it was something they were looking into. One force also indicated that savings from remaining traditional and on-premise solutions would be reinvested into its cloud-first strategy.

The analysis also revealed that most forces are still at the beginning of their digital transformation journey, with 40% of police IT budgets being spent on maintaining current IT infrastructure. Levels of investment into digital transformation amongst the police forces was also inconsistent, with some spending nothing at all in this area.

When asked about collaboration tools, the results revealed that there were a variety of platforms being used across the sector, with 44% of forces using online services such as Skype for Business and Webex.

Ian Jackson, chief commercial officer at Intercity Technology said: “It’s encouraging to see that the majority of police forces are moving to a cloud-first strategy, which will lay the foundations for a more connected and agile future. This will allow new technologies to be adopted more quickly and ultimately enable the police to respond to crime more effectively.

“There’s still work to be done when it comes to replacing legacy systems, but with the government currently investing more than £100 million into transformative technology in this area, we should soon see the benefits of a police force that embraces cloud technology, unified communications and seamless knowledge sharing and the benefits brought about from savings and agility this brings to maximum effect.”