Simon Parr, independent consultant, former chief constable of Cambridgeshire Police and national lead for police IT
Has the police sector been historically too fond of bespoke applications and a Rolls Royce approach to system building? One former chief constable says so, giving as evidence the rationalisation process he led at his own force. It revealed extensive spending on licences for little used systems and useful software supplied as part of a bundle by suppliers that had simply not been touched.
“We need to do what private sector companies do, and run with the 80-90% of the software as is,” recommends this expert, who is convinced more use of commodity technology could deliver both efficiency and cost savings for most forces.
Supported by Microsoft, UKAuthority worked with Simon Parr and research participants from police, government and associated bodies, to publish a white paper, 'Digitising Policing'.
You can download a copy of the paper here.
