One of England's largest police forces has announced a £25m contract to transform its operations with digital technology. The five-year deal, between West Midlands Police and Accenture, is the biggest public-private partnership in the force's history.
Accenture said it will provide West Midlands Police with digitally enabled capabilities to help meet current and future policing needs, manage citizen service requests and achieve cost savings across operations. The initial phase of the project will involve the design of a new operating model for the force that will help shape and inform operational decisions from 2015 to 2020. The operating model will be developed in close consultation with partners, local communities and stakeholders.
Accenture will provide project and program management, business change and system integration services, working with the force to introduce mobile technologies to support front-line policing efforts and to enable officers to increase the time they spend on patrol. The project also will help transform how information is shared across the force and support the development of new innovative service delivery models with partner organisations.
Accenture will also assist West Midlands Police in analysing existing police data and information sources using analytic technologies to drive insights and intelligence that support police investigations. HP will design a new IT infrastructure to support the increased mobility, security and data analysis needs of the force.
Chief Constable Chris Sims said: "Today police forces need the latest technologies to assist in the fight against crime and to help protect communities. A more efficient operating environment supported by the greater use of technology will help us deliver better service to the public while reducing costs and maintaining a strong visible presence on the streets."
Under the terms of the "value-based" agreement, payments to Accenture will be linked to outcomes that are closely aligned to overall force performance in key areas such as budget savings.
A report published today (July 22) by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found West Midlands Police is on track to achieve its required savings of £146m over the government's spending review period from 2010 to 2015.It is one of just five forces nationally said to be making outstanding progress.
The announcement comes a year after Police Scotland announced it had agreed a 10-year contract with Accenture to replace more than 120 systems with a new policing system called i6.
