Policing always demands more investment. Money is often spent before it’s even materialised. But the cloud has proven its worth, giving agencies the means to bank on benefits without sky-high investment. We explore the rapid and measurable impact it’s had for three different police forces around the world.
Tired, long-established workflows come at a cost to efficiency and data security, but agencies are strapped for funds. Within the EU in 2018 just 0.9% of the general government total expenditure on public order and service was spent on police services. The cloud puts a stop to wasteful practices and channels money back where it belongs – into creating safer communities.
Automation, AI, mobile access to apps, data and resources. All are made possible because of the cloud. It’s the engine that ignites automation, while its storage unlocks AI capacity. Law enforcement agencies are already harnessing this technology to utilise resources more efficiently, from increasing productivity through reduced paperwork and optimising their responses with anywhere access to critical information.
Enhanced services, enhanced savings
Western Australia Police set out to elevate their digital capability with this technology and have reaped the rewards ever since. From undergoing cloud migration to deploying body cameras and creating specially developed apps to keep police connected, the digital transformation made a rapid impact. Beforehand officers found that getting backup in difficult situations could take as long as an hour. Bespoke legacy platforms that were fragmented also meant that training that should take 20 minutes would last hours. Now they’re able to seamlessly connect to stations around the State, integrate their systems and use their time more effectively. Other new capabilities included facilitating remote working and a platform that allows members of the public to upload video footage as evidence for investigating officers to access instantly via the cloud.
The case for digital evidence
Managing the collection, analysis and sharing of manual evidence can be a huge drain on police resources. When digitised, this data enables law enforcement teams to investigate and prosecute cases at speed. For example, Lancashire Constabulary recently committed to cloud process improvements that have not only allowed them to spot inefficiencies and ultimately improve outcomes, but have also driven significant cost savings. They anticipate costs to be cut by a staggering 70% as automation completely removes the need to manually copy evidence footage from body cameras and CCTV onto CDs, which then need to be painstakingly labelled, categorised and shelved by hand. The savings in physical media is also expected to be slashed by 75%. Investigators can now channel their value and expertise into solving cases, while leaving the filing in the capable hands of the cloud.
Accelerate, anticipate & reclaim costs
Man-hours spent on labour-intensive manual tasks are the worst offenders for draining costs. The predictive capacity of the AI and machine learning empowers officers to analyse the sea of data that would otherwise take years, or even a lifetime to search through. AI finds patterns and links between suspects through these vast volumes of records. The time and cost saving benefits are only surpassed by the life-saving impact it powers. The law enforcement in New Delhi is a case in point. After officers trialled an AI-powered facial recognition system, they were able to successfully identify nearly 3,000 missing children within just four days.
Don’t leave security up in the air
Building innovation into law enforcement doesn’t have to be expensive. Nor should it come at a cost to the security of data. Beyond streamlining operations, the cloud offers protection that can’t be matched by siloed legacy stacks. It strengthens data security, backing up legacy environments while also having officers’ backs by opening the door to flexible working.
VMware Cloud Foundation is a private and hybrid cloud platform that enables consistent, secure infrastructure and operations across private and public cloud for agencies. Used for managing VMs and orchestrating containers, it’s built on full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure technology with a single architecture that’s easy to deploy. We can also help law enforcement simplify multi-cloud operations for the most efficient way to get up and running on the cloud. VMware Tanzu does this by observing, analysing and operating Kubernetes-based infrastructure and your services running on the cloud to cut costs. And it’s all scalable to suit the needs of your team and the wider public safety requirements.
Unstoppable innovation
Transforming digital infrastructure with cloud solutions holds so much promise for the future of law enforcement. Once the cloud is established, the only way is up. Efficiency upon efficiency can be built. As breakthroughs in technology continue to arise, agencies can better take them in their stride and continue to make savings without taking a hit to finances. Helping nations become safer, more prosperous places.
At VMware we’re committed to delivering the technology that does just this. Whether you want to facilitate data connection and sharing, utilise real-time data or explore what the cloud could do for your unique needs, we’re here to help. Please get in touch.
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