Written evidence submitted by
Chief Constable Dave Thompson, West Midlands Police

 

Executive Summary

This paper covers:

Introduction

West Midlands Police is engaged in a progressive change programme that has been consistently graded as “Outstanding” by HMIC. The programme operates within the most financially challenging budget reductions of any force in the country with one of the most demanding policing areas. In addition to my force role I am the National Police Chief Council Lead for Finance.

The Challenge

  1. Policing is facing a series of challenges that require major reflection on how services are shaped into the 21st Century. These include:

 

West Midlands Police: WMP2020

  1. In 2012, West Midlands Police recognised the step change required for policing in the 21St century and that its own capabilities to deliver change could not meet the requirements for the future. In 2014 the Police and Crime Commissioner and the force formed a strategic partnership with Accenture to deliver a five-year change programme drawing on commercial abilities in the management of change and the delivery of technology. The partnership has built the change requirement on a set of capabilities we believe policing will need in the future and a five year plan to achieve these.

 

  1. At the core of this work has been a new vision for the force and values that deliver traditional policing principles within a modern service. This is critical as the future is more than simply new technology or operational requirements. It will require a shift in policing behaviours, skills and leadership a discerning public and modern employees will expect. At the same time it is important policing retains the essential values and Peelian principles that have secured policing by consent within the UK.

 

West Midlands Police operating principles and the 2020 Work

  1. West Midlands Police’s mission is:

                “Preventing crime, protecting the public and helping those in need”

The reframed mission is reinforced by a series of operating principles that direct the shape of the West Midlands Police change programme. These are set in the following six areas:

Information drives our actions

  1. The force is embarking on a series of activities to enhance information accessibility through mobile data and agile working strategies so that staff are less tethered to the police estate. These new technologies are creating new pressures. With a growth in digital imagery, data and materials retention, storage and archiving is now a new virtual estate demand.

 

  1. This challenge is more than storage but exploitation through advanced “big data” analytics. West Midlands Police is leading a consortium with all metropolitan forces and the NCA to develop a UK wide analytics function.  The potential to exploit data offers considerable capability for policing to predict risk particularly when paired with evidence based practice.

Case Study:  Data Driven Insights

As part of the WMP2020 transformation programme West Midlands Police has developed the Data Driven Insight (DDI) project.

DDI comprises the following core elements:

Infrastructure: A modern, scalable, big-data compatible infrastructure capable of hosting data from an ever expanding range of internal and external sources. The infrastructure will host a suite of cutting edge technologies to efficiently prepare and organise data.

Integration: DDI will integrate data from over 80 existing source systems, bringing together previously disparate data into one master data record and allowing external partner and open source data to be combined. 

Interrogation: DDI will provide users with a range of modern and intuitive interfaces to interrogate the integrated data. This will include a single ‘enterprise’ wide search of all data held, modern business intelligence and performance reporting tools and advanced data discovery and visualisation capabilities.

Insight: DDI has successfully piloted the use of data engineers and data scientists to demonstrate the opportunities to gain greater insight from data.  The creation of an ‘analytics lab’ brings together rich data and highly skilled resources to apply mathematical, statistical and computational science to complex policing and business challenges.

The DDI capabilities will be utilised in both the operational and organisational spheres. Examples of planned application include:

Identifying the factors that lead to vulnerability

Developing predictive risk models to identify those who need our help most

Identifying and optimising business processes

 

Our People are trusted and valued

  1. Whatever capability future policing needs, the workforce will remain the critical component of delivery. An increasingly well-educated and skilled workforce requires a new approach to leadership. A new social contract called the “People Deal” has been developed in the West Midlands to redefine employer / employee expectations. Too often skilled police staff do not feel they have a strong voice in how policing is delivered and the need for stronger principles of internal fairness and justice will be an expectation of the 2st Century employee. Recruiting the right skills and a reflective police force are vital.

A new relationship with the public

  1. The force is shifting its focus from a deficit model, one where public services concentrate on what is wrong and try to fix it, to a more asset based approach. Asset based approaches seek to strengthen protective features of communities and activate local people in addressing their problems. We believe this is a central way forward for 21st century citizens where the police work with the public not just deliver services to them. A new neighbourhood model is in place to build these changes.

 

  1. Services need to reflect a digital era. In the spring West Midlands Police will release a new service portal on its website that will be the most globally advanced. It will allow the integrated reporting of incidents, uploading of imagery, supply of statements and tracking of cases and intends to match gov.uk in its design.

 

  1. Extensive work has been done in the force to model service journeys where the public and staff have set out the aspiration for how they would like policing to work across a number of activities. These are being used to create our services.

 

  1. Finally drawing on extensive evidence of the value of procedural justice the force will instigate a fairness in policing programme to create services designed upon these principles to enhance our legitimacy.

Gearing to prevent

  1. West Midlands Police has created dedicated neighbourhood teams who have a single role to work with communities to prevent crime. Reactive roles have been removed from these teams and skills increased on problem solving and engagement.

Local Policing Model case study:  West Midlands Police recognise each area is different and requires a tailor-made policing approach.  With Cardiff University, we have used the latest evidence base to assess every neighbourhood. Looking at crime levels dating back to 2003, population density, the number of entertainment and shopping centres, offender locations and indices of multiple deprivation to create a rich, detailed understanding of the challenges faced within each area.  This analysis allowed us to allocate staff proportionately and create a benchmark to assess the long term change policing achieves.

Each of our Neighbourhood Policing Units is focused on six clear objectives:

•              Prevent harm at the earliest opportunity

•              Reduce demand through long term problem solving

•              Prevent reoffending through effective offender management

•              Work more effectively with partners, especially around early intervention

•              Increase public confidence in us by understanding and responding to their needs

•              Activate citizens and mobilise partners to tackle local concerns

Our aim is to get ‘upstream’ and intervene sooner, to prevent harm.

We have introduced new training for all local officers to professionalise their preventative role in addition to seeking opportunities to co-locate with our partner agencies. We have introduced a new mission for PCSOs, that of Connect and Build.  This role has been defined to give them a clear mission, to have detailed knowledge and understanding of a small part of our area, to connect with communities, individuals and key stakeholders and to empower local people to take the lead for resolving community problems themselves. 

  1. Extensive investment has been carried out in offender management teams to ensure around 4,000 statutory and non-statutory offenders are subject to intensive management. Considerable evidence based research has been undertaken on what factors can reduce offending. The Turning Point experiment with Cambridge University has shown extensive opportunity to reduce early offending through non-judicial interventions. The Force has a public health approach to reducing violence recognising that an era where crime prevention is moving from property crime to personal violence that the levers to prevent crime are different.

Violence Alliance case study:  In 2013 West Midlands Police seconded an officer to Public Health England to unlock new ways of working to prevent violence. By sharing information and reviewing the evidence base nationally and internationally, we were able to engage and gain the support of partners across the public, third and voluntary sector.

In 2014 with the support of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner we launched the West Midlands Violence Prevention Alliance (WMVPA). The WMVPA works across sectors and systems as advocates for prevention and early intervention. A key strand of this work is based on Craig’s Story, the true story of a family in the West Midlands which is the foundation of the WMP Strategic Assessment. This powerful narrative starts a different conversation about the necessity to view the future of policing and other sectors differently. By adopting a life course approach led by a public health ethos we can see (using information and evidence) the role that different sectors can play in the prevention arena.

One example of this is the impact of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs). Preventing ACEs can improve health across the whole life course, enhancing individuals’ well-being and lifelong economic productivity while reducing pressures and costs on the wider public sector including criminal justice. Successes of the WMVPA are its advocacy, its engagement across the education sector and implementation of a Bystander Program that promotes leadership and behaviour change in young people, the creation of the West Midlands Injury Surveillance System allowing for an enhanced understanding of violence within the West Midlands using health and policing information, the commitment to a program of work within Emergency Departments in two challenging NHS trusts in Birmingham. The work of the WMVPA has been recognised internationally and they are now a member of the World Health Organisation Violence Prevention Alliance.

 

Responding at pace

  1. In order to free policing resources for prevention the policing activities of call handling, dispatch, response, investigation and justice have to become more productive and effective.

 

  1. The new WMP2020 operating model has removed these functions from local management and now controls these resources at force level. A new Mission Support function coordinates and directs force activity against threat throughout the day and positions resources across the force. The Thrive+ model is used to prioritise activity on threat and vulnerability with a 24/7 live intelligence function screening all high risk calls for action. The next few years will see an enhancement of specialist capabilities in areas such as digital investigations exploiting the option of more modern working practices to communicate and share information across the force but have one shared capability for specialist work rather than a localised model. More effective mobile working is lifting staff productivity.

  Listening and learning

  1. A considerable focus of the programme is on evidence based policing practice. West Midlands Police commissions high volumes of research nationally and its work on offenders and procedural justice will be used to develop future policing work. How future police employees professionally develop needs to mature to rely less on the training school model and more on continuous professional development.

What does this work signal for future policing?

  1. The national Vision 2025 is a positive step for policing. It is a consensus document across Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners and is developing emerging areas for national actions through the Police Reform and Transformation Board. This is welcomed and has great potential but the challenges for the sector in running the business today whilst simultaneously changing for tomorrow are harder than ever. The challenges are seen by West Midlands Police as:

Digital policing

  1. There is a compelling case to develop a national blueprint for police technology. There is no agreed statement of the capabilities needed for the future. Across policing there are a series of large scale technology investments: the ESMCP programme, the National Data for Law Enforcement Programme within the Home Office. The Mercury Programme within Counter Terrorism Policing, a digital programme within the NPCC programme and other emerging “bottom up” programmes within forces.

 

  1. The recent landscape review of police-related ICT has enabled greater coordination of these national programmes and this is welcomed but this is not yet a vision with defined capabilities. The policing landscape makes this difficult to achieve. The bulk of technology capability is held within forces with a wide latitude on investment choices. National capability is limited.

 

  1. Whilst the policing accountability is for a localised service the technology architecture in a globalised digital world is by necessity now a national one. We believe between Home Office and Policing a new settlement and operating model for vision, design and execution of the law enforcement technology landscape is needed.

Specialist policing

  1. A reconfiguration of forces often discussed, would be the wrong choice at this stage. It would focus policing on structure and not future capabilities. The need to set out and develop a greater level of sharing of specialist functions is essential. Delivering many of these activities at a force level may no longer be economic or match the threat. These changes can be achieved within the current structure but will require real courage by Chief Constables and PCCs. West Midlands Police fully supports the APCC/NPCC Specialist Capabilities programme to simplify, standardise, share and accelerate the development of these specialist capabilities.

 

Prevention and early intervention

 

  1. As policing is moving from prevention of traditional property crime the Peelian Preventative Mission is becoming more complex. Prevention of violent or high harm behaviour to people is increasingly requiring much earlier intervention. The advent of big data solutions is industrialising the ability to identify and predict risk and put in place interventions at an early stage.

 

  1. It remains impossible to mobilise the interventions needed from policing alone to grasp this prevention opportunity. Whilst there is promising local action on addressing complex dependency, some of which is enabled by devolution, this is not developing scalable models for how public services can work in a more effective and financially achievable way to prevent harm. This remains a continual cycle seen through Total Place and Community Budgets of small scale local pilots that show promise failing to develop into a national policy position.

 

  1. The current national funding focus is heavily dominated by supply side services and not prevention. This is socially and economically unsustainable. There is a need for a stronger national cross government agenda on prevention and early intervention.

Fairness and trust, legitimacy

  1. As society is more diverse and globalised, policing legitimacy will need to be continually refreshed. An information age with considerable levels of automation may place economic strains on the population least able to adapt.

 

  1. In this context policing will need to accelerate the diversification of its staff to become an employer that better reflects the population it serves. The application of current equality laws and the pace of demographic change will mean even with the best efforts policing cannot match this challenge.

 

 

  1. Legitimacy requires more than becoming a more reflective service. Policing will require more work to demonstrate its actions and use of powers are fair. We believe an increasing use of procedural justice principles is central to the future policing model.

 

  1. The current process for managing and investigating complaints and critical police public encounters is glacial in its pace, bureaucratic and blame-focussed. It is ill-suited to a complex modern society and choices need to be made about how truth and where necessary justice will operate. The arrangements are byzantine to a modern information-driven society. Cases that are high profile, often shared instantaneously on social media, can take years to address. The risk of a trust deficit without a more response and mature approach will become increasingly challenging for the police.

 

Workforce

 

  1. The traditional police officer workforce model has been tethered due to the pension arrangements. Whilst pay is falling behind other sectors this has restricted turnover. These arrangements will change, and arguably be less attractive to future officers. This may mean the police workforce will have higher turnover. This may match the needs of a less omni-competent workforce with most policing disciplines becoming more specialist and the need for increasing digital and technology skills. This more skilled workforce will require consideration of a more modern reward package and employment frameworks that recognise an increasing police staff workforce in operational roles.

Partnership and commercial change

  1. The strength of West Midlands Police’s change has been to harness commercial skills from Accenture without surrendering control of any aspect of operational policing. We believe better commercial partnerships with the private sector can deliver more innovation and greater value.

 

  1. The connectivity with other public service partners will become more critical. As policing seeks to move towards a stronger prevention model, the connectivity of services and capabilities will be more acute. As funding for supply services contracts work and people are in danger of being “shunted” across a disconnected landscape. This is publicly visible in the health and social care landscape but is no less acute in policing. There is a need to re-vision what are the services the state seeks to provide in a place and who does this.

 

Automation and artificial intelligence and ethics

 

  1. As the society develops digital technology, automation and artificial intelligence it is important the consequences for policing are not neglected. The increased level of encryption of technology is creating impenetrable private space in a cyber world designed by private sector organisations that does not exist in public regulated space.  The development of automation and artificial intelligence in areas such as driverless cars will create opportunities to assist the police in investigating offences but a legal framework for responsibility that must be capable of articulation and enforcement. Policing is simply not big enough to anticipate these areas but a whole government approach must encompass policing issues.
  2. Within policing digitalisation, automation and the application of artificial intelligence can offer significant service benefits that can improve policing and reduce its cost. However in policing and criminal justice the balance of what can be done and what should be done will require a clear ethical framework and a strong political and public narrative. The implementation of change in these areas will take place in the next five years and require consideration. We will quickly move from a growth in online services to the potential for artificial intelligence decision making. 

Scenario planning

  1. The pace of change across policing and public services will be so profound in the next few years that there is a need for stronger future thinking. Grasping global technology trends has been something West Midlands Police has been able to do with a global commercial partner, but is less optimal than taking a broader national approach. The requirement for cross government planning and anticipation of future trends and the societal impact are just as pressing as the challenges of Brexit.

 

  1. Policing capabilities are not designed for integrated scenario planning and assessment of this type. Nor is it effective to do this alone as the levers for policing will unquestionably lie outside policing. This can restrict the planning horizon for policing.

Summary

  1. West Midlands Police, other police forces and the National Police Chiefs Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners are planning for the future. Vision 2025 and the Police Reform and Transformation are developing an emerging national programme. Policing should be proud of the innovation and progress so far in a very challenging financial climate.

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  1. The complexity of the challenge and the opportunities for change are increasing. Whilst government has rightly placed a great responsibility for policing’s future on the service there is a growing requirement for a re-visioning of the challenges emerging for public services and the significant societal changes that will develop. In that role both policing and government will need to look hard at the capabilities to plan and execute those changes.

 

 

Dave Thompson QPM LLB (Hons)

Chief Constable

West Midlands Police

 

National Police Chief Council Lead for Finance.

Policing in the Future – West Midlands Police                            7