Adhering to Peelian Principles in the Modern World Requires Embracing New Technology
Ten years ago, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue (HMICFRS) introduced its police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections. The resulting PEEL reports effectively rate the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales (on a scale ranging from ‘Outstanding’ to ‘Inadequate’) based on a variety of criteria, including how good the force is at: preventing and deterring crime and antisocial behaviour and reducing vulnerability; responding to the public; investigating crime; and managing offenders and suspects.
These regular PEEL reports offer senior officers and other stakeholders an independent assessment that they can use to take corrective actions (either on their own, or as part of an HMICFRS monitoring process supported by the College of Policing or the National Police Chiefs’ Council). The assessments also often form the basis for the agendas and manifestos of both current and prospective Police and Crime Commissioners.
As telling as each individual force’s assessment is, even more insight can be gained by looking at the assessments holistically. For example, if we look at the most recent PEEL reports (published for forces between 2021 and 2024), three areas largely deemed inadequate by HMICFRS stand out for nearly every force: 1) investigating crime, 2) protecting vulnerable people, and 3) responding to the public.
To achieve superlative performance in each of these areas, however, requires time and resources, which forces are lacking. Like many law enforcement agencies around the world, UK police forces are facing a staffing crisis. According to an article in The Independent, “Policing is facing a ‘perfect storm’, with fears of a looming staffing crisis as figures reveal more than one in five officers is poised to quit the service.” This follows a year when a record number of officers (9,200) departed the force.
Still, while resources are on the decline, public expectations continue to rise. Just last year, the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing committed to ensuring that forces follow every reasonable line of enquiry for all crimes. Summarising the agreed-to approach, an article published by the UK Government elaborated: "The ‘back-to-basics’ approach will mean police forces across England and Wales are expected to take advantage of footage made available by CCTV, vehicle dashcams, phones and smart doorbells to help identify suspects and place them at the scene of the crime."
Optimising Resources and Streamlining Crime-Solving with DEMS
The use of CCTV in crime-solving is not new. CCTV has always been vital to investigations, and its use has been greatly encouraged by the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC). In fact, the NBCC was one of the early collaborators on a digital transformation initiative that urged businesses to share CCTV footage with police electronically so as not to delay investigations. This development was made possible by Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMS) like NICE Investigate (used by most forces in England and Wales today).
Prior to DEMS, if video was needed for an investigation, an officer would have to get in his or her car, drive to the scene, make a copy of the video, and transport it back to the station. Today, thanks to DEMS, officers can request and receive that same CCTV footage electronically, whether from council-operated public space surveillance, local businesses or residential properties (that have registered their cameras). In some forces, like ClevelandPolice, this has eliminated hundreds of weekly trips to collect evidence.
Safeguarding the Vulnerable with Faster Access to Evidence
DEMS can also play a vital role in helping to safeguard vulnerable people by making evidence available sooner, resulting in more guilty pleas, and faster charging decisions.
A good example of this is in cases involving domestic abuse (where body-worn video footage recorded at the scene by an officer can provide compelling evidence). Having the ability to immediately access body-worn video via DEMS reduces the likelihood that a suspect will be released, and thus allowed to sway, intimidate, or further harm a victim).
Optimising Resources and Improving Response to Inquiries with WFM, Voice Analytics and AI
Another technology that is helping police control rooms make the most of limited resources is the Workforce Management System (WFM).
Police control room managers need to be able to identify peaks and troughs in demand, and call patterns, to ensure their control rooms are appropriately staffed, and that’s precisely what Workforce Management technology was designed to do.
With WFM, control rooms can monitor and manage operator staffing to precisely match demand, by ensuring that the right number of operators with the right skill sets are on shift at theright time.
Another issue plaguing police control rooms is the over-use of emergency lines for reporting of non-emergency issues. In a single month, one force noted that while they were contacted 58,025 times (via 999,101 and online), only a quarter of these communications were crime-related inquiries.
AI-powered technologies, like voiceanalytics, can help police forces gain a better understanding of the problem, by categorising the types of calls that are received.
Other AI technologies (e.g. conversational AI) can then be applied to ‘deflect’ non-emergency calls away from emergency call takers, instead sending automated replies and notifications.
Embracing New Technologies: The Key to Outstanding PEEL Inspections
While today’s PEEL inspections are still based on the nine Peelian principles laid out by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, many other things have changed. Growing digital evidence and public expectations, combined with shrinking police resources, are creating new challenges for police forces.
To adhere to the Peelian principles in the modern world, forces need to embrace new technologies and innovative ways of working.
For interested police forces, the money to do so is there. Earlier this year, the UK government allocated £230 million for police forces that want to adopt innovative new technologies for policing.
To invest this money wisely, however, forces would be prudent to take lessons from the successes of other forces who have faced similar challenges and embraced new technology solutions.
