Police Scotland is to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds on projects that make it possible to remotely monitor the health of people in custody.
It has received the money from national innovation agency Innovate UK to run a competition for solutions that will also involve an early warning and intervention alert system.
The move comes in response to increasing concern over the safety of people held in custody and healthcare professionals who are monitoring them.
The police force is looking for companies to develop systems that can monitor people at different locations, taking in their heart rates, temperature, breathing and movement but without using wearable devices.
It also wants the capacity for remote consultations and to be able to determine the clinical risk of concealed objects such as drugs, weapons and phones.
Phases
Under the first phase of the competition, a number of proposals will receive shares of £150,000 – up to £30,000 each – to support research and development aimed at demonstrating feasibility. The second phase will involve one or two projects receiving up to £200,000 each to develop a prototype and undertake field testing.
The money is coming from Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund under the Small Business Research Initiative.
Image from West Midlands Police CC BY 2.0
