Updates from the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser (OPCSA)
Updates
Updates
In the 2024 spring budget, HM Treasury announced a commitment of £230 million to roll out cutting-edge technology to increase policing productivity1. This comes off the back of the Policing Productivity Review2, where the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser identified savings of up to 15 million hours annually if 64 local force innovations were scaled nationally. Pilot schemes of police technology such as first responder drones, robotic process automation, automating the triage of 101 calls and live facial recognition will be supported. A new Centre for Police Productivity3 at the College of Policing will be supporting the roll out of these new technologies.
In late 2023, members of the NPCC endorsed a set of principles that define how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used in policing. Spearheaded by the OPCSA, the six principles: Lawful, Transparent, Explainable, Responsible, Accountable and Robust will provide openness to scrutiny, integrity and public confidence in the use of AI technologies.
Police are simultaneously unlocking the benefits of AI in both organisational and demand management functions and fighting an ‘arms race’ with criminals who employ AI based technologies to harm the public. In both activities, developers and users of AI in policing must now give due regard to the Covenant’s principles, to ensure a proportionate and responsible use of new technologies.
The publication of the Covenant is taking place amongst other OPCSA activities to galvanise the system to support ethical AI in policing. Including advising the newly appointed AI policing lead - Chief Constable Alex Murray, investment into cross-government and security partner activity on deepfake detection and wider generative AI mitigation and unlocking the productivity benefits of automated processing.
The inaugural Police Industry Charter was signed at the Security and Policing Conference on the 13th of March 2024 by senior leaders in policing, government and industry. Kickstarted by the OPCSA, and now administered by BlueLight Commercial, the Charter was launched to set the foundational principles for industry partners and UK policing to collectively adhere to.
In just a few short months, 340 suppliers have become signatories of the Charter. If you are interested in becoming a signatory visit: bluelightcommercial.my.site.com/signthecharter/
The Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser are developing a science and technology profession so our scientific and technical community is supported, developed, and recognized for the crucial role it plays in modern policing.
The profession will be a channel for identifying and addressing the needs of those delivering S&T, and a focal point for offering career opportunities and personal development. It will also ensure the right talent is attracted to and retained in policing.
A survey was recently sent across all forces to understand the make-up of our current S&T workforce. Updates will be disseminated via science.police.uk as the profession develops.
This year, fifteen projects, totalling £2.4 million in funding, have been selected for the Police STAR Fund.
Delivered by the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser (OPCSA), the fund aims to stimulate local innovation and encourages collaboration to solve S&T problems within policing, to ultimately, provide a better service to the public. Through the support of the programme, projects have gone on to receive national recognition and funding from other sources to support further development and roll-out.
This year, an exciting range of projects have been funded through the programme.
These include:
Expressions of Interest for the Police STAR Fund 2025/2026 opens on the 7th of October 2024. For more information about the fund and how it works visit science.police.uk.
The Police STAR Fund was originally launched in 2020 by the Home Office. Since taking over the fund in 2021/22, OPCSA has supported 80 projects; totalling over £11m of funding.
