Underpinning our approach was the insight that policing was based on an unsustainable ‘parent-child’ relationship with the public. If the Met were to deliver the required service standards, in the context of greater demand, they would need to do so in partnership with an informed, empowered public. “The Police are the public, the public are the Police”.

It was essential to deliver sufficient take-up of digital policing services, both to reduce costs associated with physical channels and to deliver improved services to a larger number of users. On that basis, opportunities were prioritised and a series of pilots defined that would rapidly validate concepts that could be built into the solution.

The solution would deliver seamless self-service within a social engagement ecosystem that would also support crime and incident reporting through partner platforms. Leveraging relationships with partners would allow the Met to deliver better results and increased value for money.

The platform was built to be modular, scaleable and future-proof. It provides a range of capabilities and services that underpin delivery of local services. Local forces are able to tailor the mix of services and content to their community.

Key capabilities that the system provides include:

Digital channels to allow reporting of any crime or incident type

Smart triage - starting point for users wanting to report a crime or incident, asking only relevant questions to the scenario in order to manage risk, identify jurisdiction and advise/signpost users.

Forms engine - allows forces to build new online processes without technical support

‘Your area’ - a dashboard to present all local community information and conversation in one place, pulling the content from various sources and using tags to identify the right content to display

Use of social media in reporting and investigating possible crime; providing a police presence in online communities.

Significant benefits have already been delivered in London as a result of the platform:

100,000 reports of crime online over 12 months, with effective triaging meaning 90% require zero deployment. In some cases, particularly domestic and sexual assault, victims are actively choosing to use digital channels to make reports.

65% reduction in time spent by officers to triage contacts

90% of traffic allegations (RTI's) now received online

500% increase in traffic offence reporting, but with 4,000/month fewer calls relating to RTI's to the Met Police Contact Centre

14.5k enquiries resolved via Twitter (July 2016-to date) with 88% service satisfaction

1,500 officers trained to communicate with the public via social media showing significant increases in local area engagement.

As the platform rolls out nationally, these benefits will potentially scale to up to 43 Forces nationwide saving the public purse £millions.