Low-tech coppers

BRITISH bobbies are looking rather blue these days. Their budget may be cut by as much as 25-40%. Crime has fallen, but officers’ workload has not. According to the Metropolitan Police some four-fifths of calls that they take are not to do with crime but require close attention even so. And those offences that have increased in frequency, such as domestic violence, need particularly careful handling. But whereas forces around the world make better use of technology, Britain’s lag behind.

One problem is that police computers are so out of date. Each year the police waste £221m ($342m) because they cannot access systems and records once they step outside the station, according to a study by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, a think-tank. A review of London’s Metropolitan Police described a mishmash of 750 computer systems, “wired together over the last 40 years”. One core operating process, it found, was based on “a 1970s baggage handling system”. Police could get better deals on new technology as well. In September Theresa May, the home secretary, said that savings from better procurement methods might be worth as much as £75m a year.