Met plans £200m tech overhaul as key IT deals bite dust

London's police aim to tool up officers with tablets and wearable tech to combat the capital's crime

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has unveiled plans to overhaul its tech estate as a number of its big-ticket deals draw to a close in the coming years.

The Total Technology Strategy 2014-2017 heralds a "once-in-a-generation" chance to modernise the Met, claimed the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Stephen Greenhalgh. Last year, the force was heavily criticised by the London Assembly, which said the IT kit it used was so ancient that it pushed the crime rate up in London.

Its new strategy, which it unveiled today, will see the force invest £200m into tech over the next three years in an effort to cut ongoing IT costs by 30 per cent by enabling officers to spend more time on the beat.

The masterplan focuses on equipping the police with mobile tech - such as tablets and body-worn cameras to capture action on film - and improving the way the public can interact and report crimes.

"Police officers and staff will need mobile technology," the report said. "This will reduce travelling time to and from police buildings and increase time available for policing.

"Current technology in the MPS is not well suited to this online, mobile-centric vision. Many of the supporting systems were designed in the 1980s and 1990s."

Changing culture

The new tech strategy does not stop at front-line staff gadgets and encompasses big changes to the way the Met procures technology from suppliers. More than 80 per cent of its current IT equipment is legacy kit, with the remaining 20 per cent invested in what it describes as more modern and agile tech.

Back in December, the government published three Prior Information Notices (PINs) for new government frameworks to replace CITHS, SITS and Sprint ii - the latter which the police force uses to procure IT equipment.

In its tech strategy report, MPS said it will pay closer attention to the new Sprint ii framework as well as G-Cloud in an effort to broaden its horizons.

"Many MPS ICT contracts will expire in the coming years including the key contract with our outsourced providers," it said. "Our strategy for the procurement of external services reflects lessons learned from our previous procurements, experiences of other public and private bodies and procurement trends within government.

"Key drivers for our future supplier contracts include... reduced contracting time through use of streamlined procurement frameworks, such as G-Cloud and Sprint ii."