Research evidence, technological innovation and scientific standards in policing workstream report

Executive summary

This work stream has focused on understanding the role of technology adoption and innovation within Police Scotland, and outlines three main areas: existing approaches to the adoption of technological innovation; barriers to adoption; and a study into viewpoints of technology providers into the future horizon for technological innovation. The responses from the study touch on a number of themes such as: data driven innovation; putting the victim at the centre with any new technology adoption; data interoperability and standards; and what next generation standards for digital evidence management looks like.

For evidence-based decision making:

• Police practices should be based on scientific evidence about what works best with pilots developed with in collaboration with industry and academia. Using a combination of best practice research evidence, industry knowledge and experience, and the experiences of the victims of crime is key in order to make informed decisions on the adoption of emerging technology. It is also thus important to understand when an evaluation is needed, and how it can be implemented ahead of the change happening. A core part of this must be to seek the support of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) or others in commissioning the evaluation prior to the technology coming into effect.
• Change Board within Policy Scotland may wish to define criteria in the Case for Change section of the business case. To better support the adoption of innovation, and, When met, these criteria would require further research and evidence to be generated/gathered in order to support the case for change. The prerequisite for supporting more research and evidence could be determined by the risks (perceived and/or potential) associated with a technology's adoption, and/or the value of the investment. For high risk proposals, it may be appropriate for external and independent research to be carried out and reviewed by change board.
• Democratise the decision making in relation to the adoption of new technologies to ensure representation from a variety of Scotland's community. This could mitigate potentially negative societal impacts to society through providing differing perspectives and viewpoints. Arguably, this would be ideally suited to an earlier stage in the process than is currently the case. Along with this, Police Scotland may consider introducing the evaluation of the impact of new technologies. A baseline impact measurement could be confirmed ahead of the introduction of technology and ultimately be used to assess the implementation of technology.

Barriers and facilitators to technological adoption:

• Police organization needs a clear innovation strategy and vision on technology. The use of technology in the daily routine of police practice often depends on: flexible and customized support from facilitating services; the motivation and perseverance of project leaders and police chiefs; a clear organizational structure and governance; and the related timely and fitting decision-making on project development.
• Technology innovation is not just about getting the technology right, but about sociotechnical change which includes cultural change in practice, institutions, and oversight. Successful adoption into practice needs to take into consideration stakeholder perceptions, existing systems and practices at practitioner, policy and oversight levels, and a variety of other elements that may be impacted on and are likely to have to innovate at the same time.
• Technology innovation should be a longer-term process, also at the implementation level. This means that decisions about procurement, replacing of systems, changes to practices, need to focus on establishing understanding and the willingness to experiment, e.g., in small scale test-runs.

• Technological innovation should be about partnership. Developing stable, longer-term mutual collaboration with industry, academia, public representatives, various relevant agencies and across the police force can strengthen the capacity for sociotechnical change, encourage benefits to arise from such change, and render innovation socially more acceptable.

Adoption of new technology:

• Victim at the centre. From the viewpoints of technology providers is that as new technologies are developed, it is important to put the victim at the centre of any innovation. This will enable an improved response rates through data interoperability and data sharing though a secure platform for multi-agency working and knowledge sharing. Along with this there will be a better understanding of touchpoints that a victim could interact with during a police investigation.
• Next generation standards. These must be designed to meet the needs of the user in line with the Digital Scotland Service Standard and Government Digital Service Standard. A key focus is that they standards must enable interoperability within and between forces to reduce cost, risk and complexity and, conform to published specifications for storage, sharing and security to ensure a common understanding of what good looks like.
• Integrating with developing standards. A number of recommendations for Police Scotland have been flagged when exploring what standards emerge from outside of policing POLE standards will be critical when enabling interoperability and, with the adoption of emerging technologies ISO27001 which looks at how to manage information security and how to avoid issues with human error has been suggested as this will ensure staff know how to manage the data properly. Further recommendations include: The GOV.UK Technology Code of Practice; GOV.UK Data Ethics framework; and the NHS Digital, data and technology standards framework.