The Police Integration Hub: drawing expertise from defence
Article
Article
Funded by the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser (OPCSA), the Police Integration Hub is a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) team that draws on deep expertise from across Dstl to make connections between Policing and Defence.
Dstl provides the ‘science inside’ UK defence and security and has well established mechanisms to deliver scientific and operational support to policing, defence and national security.
Capabilities that have been developed for defence can often be applied to policing problems. The Hub seeks to understand research in defence that could shape future policing capabilities and considers the opportunities of emerging S&T developments for policing.
There are a myriad of mutual benefits to this approach including opportunities to: co-invest; burden share; align strategic objectives; influence a cross-government response; repurpose research or further exploit S&T developments and achieve the best possible value for public money.
The Hub highlighted the impact the continued trend in digital devices that lack physical data ports might have for policing. This topic was promulgated by the Office for the Police Chief Scientific Adviser to international partners through Interpol, resulting in the first ever UK Police CSA chaired industry and international law enforcement roundtable discussion.
The Hub is looking for S&T activity in defence that might be transferable to supporting the next generation of frontline police officers. The team are exploring areas such as personal protection, sensor integration, situational awareness, and communications.
The Hub identified a co-investment opportunity that resulted in the acceleration of activity to identify deep-fake video and audio material. This work will support defence priorities and assist policing investigations relating to online child sexual exploitation.
