To solve crime and support victims, policing professionals deal with masses of data every day.
Although your recent records will be stored in centralised data management systems, when it comes to legacy data, such as old case files, officers and staff can waste vital hours searching for physical documents, audio recordings, photographs and videos.
Not only can this slow your investigations down, but colleagues may spend valuable time searching, only to find that significant information is unavailable, leaving them to make crucial decisions based on an incomplete picture. This is why police forces need to adopt a centralised, intelligent, customised and compliant information management system where all data can be stored and accessed in one place.
Information management is the right thing to do
By May 2026, all forces will be required to manage data using systems that can account for the data held, as well as track who has accessed it and when. This will ensure that everything is processed, stored, audited and destroyed appropriately. However, good data management isn’t just about compliance, it’s also about doing the right thing for victims, witnesses and suspects. Good police work relies on accurate and relevant evidence being available; if that data is inaccessible, it can have huge consequences for everyone involved in a case and harm the reputation of your force.
It could also be the case that you do have the relevant information stored somewhere within your force, but don’t have the workforce capacity to search for it; a centralised system, removes this risk.
By digitising your paper records and giving every piece of data a digital footprint, your staff will be able to search large volumes of otherwise inaccessible information much faster. This will aid collaboration among your forces, improve evidence collection, and substantially increase performance.
Public sector experience you can trust
At Capita, we have extensive experience of data management and a deep understanding of the public sector. We’ve seen first-hand how effective information management can save time and improve productivity, while also reducing costs.
Through our omni-channel services, our in-house experts provide full support and consultation in moving from physical to digital. Our collaborative approach has helped many public sector organisations, including Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Just as with case files, when it comes to health records, healthcare providers have a crucial responsibility to ensure accurate information is available to staff. Health records management is a resource-intensive task and can add clinical risk if notes are unavailable for patient attendances. With our support, Aintree has reduced this risk by ensuring they have indexed, digitised files.
We scanned 55.2 million pages (circa 350,000 files) of patient notes which are now readily available to clinics, other practitioners and multiple users in cases involving multiple clinics. Staff at the Trust can now access records more easily and the cost of storing and managing physical archives has been significantly reduced.
To ensure success, we worked collaboratively to identify the Trust’s risks and plan the implementation. Our dedicated team supported with plans for staff training, recording and tracking records and answered their questions and concerns throughout. Our positive partnership ensured that the files were digitised smoothly and effectively.
Seize the benefits of technology
Technology is constantly evolving and offering new opportunities for improving data management. Automating workflows and robotic process automation can help to streamline your business processes, so you can enhance quality and reduce costs. And once you have all your data in one system, AI-based insights and intelligent search can help your officers and staff search across category types, so they can pull in a range of information. This can help track an individual’s interactions across your force - from whether they have a police record to whether they’ve been issued with a firearms certificate. By removing the need to search physical files, officers will have the complete picture and no longer be blind to certain information, which can improve their decision-making process and operational performance.
A centralised digital system will enable you to dedicate more time to mission critical tasks and supporting victims.
Find out more about our information management services:
Dave Tonks
Digital Transformation Consultant, Justice & Policing, Capita
Dave has extensive experience of operational policing, organisational remodelling and digital transformation.
Prior to joining Capita, Dave served for 29 years in a wide range policing roles concluding his policing career as the operational lead for Police Scotland’s Digitally Enabled Policing Team with responsibility for designing and delivering their new national information management platform (COS).
