Police forces across the UK provide a highly accountable, reactive and visible service to protect the public and is called to do so on increasingly tighter budgets. With the need to continue delivering effective policing in the wake of these continued cuts apparent, police forces’ thinking has become more future-focused and innovative, involving huge amounts of collaboration.
Early adopters, identified as being at similar points in IT development, have already formed partnerships that allow shared services to support police forces miles apart from each other.
The apparent success of these partnerships is prompting many forces to ask themselves the question: Shared Services: Friend or Foe?
There are five key considerations when discussing the possibility of a shared service scheme, either internally, or with a potential partner force:
- Will you be acting as a unified service or as separate, discrete entities using a common platform?
- Is one organisation acting as the lead, or will there be a consortium of parties?
- After assessment, which processes should be retained, amended or discarded and does this suit you?
- Politics is usually a much greater challenge than technology – are you making sure all stakeholders and staff are involved and on-board?
- Will key providers allow you to share systems or will new licences be required?
With many possible options and ways of working, finding a best fit solution for both you and a potential partner shouldn’t be too difficult – a little time consuming, perhaps.
It is also difficult not to consider the benefits of a shared solution when collaborative working towards a collective goal has already proven hugely successful in other areas – multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) being a great example.
Netcall has a long and established history of working closely with police forces across the UK, improving communications and the transfer of information. Our range of comprehensive solutions are already boosting the efficiency of forces and saving significant costs. With all solutions hosted on our single yet modular citizen engagement platform, Liberty, it is also well placed for the consideration of empowering shared services.
Learn more about how we currently support UK police forces.
Author: Guest Author
Published On: 19th Apr 2016 - Last modified: 6th Feb 2019
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