20-05-2025
The gadgets at the disposal of Britain's most high-tech police force
If 1987 sci-fi action film Robocop is to be believed, the future of law enforcement is half-man, half-machine, funded by a private corporation and upholding the law with ruthless efficiency.
In reality, the latest advancements in British policing are a little more grounded than those bestowed upon Peter Weller's Alex Murphy, but just as technologically impressive - and still getting a helping hand from the free market.
From all-seeing police cars to smartphones that all but eliminate paperwork, the UK's most high-tech police forces are kitting out their officers with the latest gear to help them fight crime better.
Crucially, it's also keeping them on the streets rather than spending hours filling out paperwork.
Forget pen and paper and shuffling back to the station to fill in the forms: today's police officers can take your statement down in an app, and have it sent back to HQ before they've even left your living room.
Chief among the leaders in high-tech policing is Lancashire Police, which has rolled out a whole host of digital paraphernalia to its 3,500 officers to use in the field.
It has partnered with Motorola Solutions - distinct from the smartphone brand, which it sold off in 2014 - to ensure its cops are the most advanced in the country whether on the road or pounding the pavements.
Its kit includes body-worn cameras that will soon be capable of live-streaming to control rooms and Pronto, a mobile phone app that provides almost everything a police officer might need while out on the beat.
And during a visit to its sleek Blackpool divisional headquarters, officers told MailOnline they couldn't be happier.
PC Dan Brown, a copper for 17 years, has watched as his pen and paper notebook has given way to a smartphone app and more technology than ever.
But while he readily admits he's not a techie, he couldn't imagine giving it up now.
'It makes life a lot, lot easier,' he says of the Pronto app.
'If you raise an issue it gets sorted, because the bosses realise how much of a vital pic of kit it is. We went out overnight and did most of the forms done in the car - it makes things so much quicker.
'It keeps us out there, not in the station.'
Practically the only paper form he fills in now is one to book someone into custody.
The Pronto app is so ubiquitous it is used by more than half of UK police forces. Lancashire was among the first in the world to adopt it.
Officers use it to collect statements and gather evidence at the scene, and upload it all to Lancashire Police's secure servers in seconds.
It can even prompt them to carry out and log 'golden hour' investigations - those crucial minutes after a crime has occured when some of the most vital evidence needs to be gathered.
Persons of interest can be checked against Home Office, Police National Computer and Interpol databases, and number plates can be checked instantly with the DVLA.
In the past, officers carrying out these checks would have to take someone to the station, or radio back to HQ to run a plate check. Now, they can do it all themselves in seconds out in the field.
Control rooms can dispatch officers to incidents through the software, with sat nav directions pinged to their car's dashboard to save them punching in an address.
And when they get there, officers can activate their body cameras to capture any essential footage - with it uploaded to Pronto the moment it finishes recording for them to attach to their report on the incident.
'Buffering' tech means the camera is primed to record before a cop even turns it on - with 30 seconds of footage captured from before it was activated to ensure no vital evidence is missed.
Cameras are omnipresent on Lancashire Police vehicles - from front-facing dashcams (left) to cage van cameras capturing suspects being loaded in at the rear (right)
An incoming upgrade will see them enabled for streaming, delivering instant footage to commanding officers at headquarters so they can coordinate major incidents.
And with statements filed via the app digitally, there's less chance of duplicating reports and less time wasted. It even works offline.
In all, Pronto is thought to save officers two hours every single shift, running into hundreds of thousands of hours saved every year.
And it could well be tackling crime. It's hard to measure how exactly the tech is helping police fight crime, but Lancashire's crime rate was around 87 per 1,000 people last year, below the England and Wales average.
Its 'crime severity score' - an experimental measure that treats serious crimes like murder as having a greater overall impact than offences like possessing cannabis - is also lower than the national average and other similar-sized police forces such as Kent and South Yorkshire.
PC Ella Thornton, a road traffic cop with seven years experience in the police, said: 'A colleague over in Cumbria was still on paper records - they couldn't believe what we were doing.'
She showed MailOnline around her top-of-the-range Cupra Leon traffic car - a hot estate packing 300 horsepower under the bonnet. Capable of hitting 60mph in less than six seconds, it's a rapid-response force to be reckoned with.
But it's the other technology its packing that really impresses: multiple cameras inside and outside the car to give near-360 degree coverage, perfect for snaring dodgy drivers.
They can even be AI-enabled to start recording when someone is sat in the rear passenger area to be interviewed.
The car can even play back footage instantly, bringing an end to the question 'Do you know why I stopped you?' as the evidence can now be seen straight away. No more dragging speeding drivers to the station.
Cars like PC Thornton's are also looped into Lancashire Police's ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) network, which flags cars of interest in a two-mile radius.
If the system detects a vehicle of interest - whether because police have been looking for it, or if it is untaxed or uninsured - it bellows out 'Intelligence report!' and gives an approximate location for where the suspect vehicle was last seen.
And if any hoodlums need rounding up, they can be packed into a squad car or a newly upgraded cage van - each equipped with multiple audio-enabled minicams that activate upon detecting someone in the back of the car.
If they resist arrest, or make any interesting statements, it's caught on camera.
'The camera systems have improved so much,' PC Thornton adds.
'It used to run on USB, and you had to download it to a disc. Now it's just there, ready.
'If you run a reg (plate), you get it back in a second. And if you've captured a drunk driver on camera, it all shows on here.'
Lancashire's specialist operations unit boasts high-performance traffic vehicles like this Cupra Leon (right), capable of hitting 60mph in less than six seconds
Lancashire has been using tech to fight crime for more than a decade and is one of Britain's most digitally advanced forces
Chief Superintendent Chris Hardy told MailOnline that his officers couldn't be happier with the upgrades.
Staff surveys have rated the tech innovations as either 'good' or 'great': a near-impossible feat, we are told, as cops are hard to impress when it comes to changing how they work.
Ch Supt Hardy, who has been with the force for 18 years, said: 'We're looking at how we can make it quick for the cops, more straightforward, simpler, around our data integrity, so we can get it right the first time.
'Crucially, it's about improving the service to the victim, and that's what's got to be at the forefront of our minds: how we do that in the right way, as quickly as possible.
'The ideal scenario for us is that our officers come in, collect their equipment, and be out for the maximum time possible.
'You can have an officer now in someone's front room, sat down with that device, taking all that critical evidence at the first point of call and doing it there and then as opposed to being delayed with taking paper statements and the gathering of CCTV.
'Our cops are truly mobile. We asked ourselves how to keep police officers out on the streets, and with technology we are doing that.'
But that technology comes at a cost: the most recent renewal of the contracts for both the Pronto app and the body-worn cameras, from now until 2029, cost a combined £7.2million, according to public contract records.
Ch Supt Hardy, however, is convinced the value for money cannot be overstated - especially as the app is regularly updated with new features, often based on the suggestions of his officers.
The marketplace for police software is also fiercely competitive, with Motorola competing alongside the likes of Swedish conglomerate Saab and Frequentis - potentially keeping prices down.
The top cop says the finances aren't down to him - but says of the finance bosses who are: 'Given that the contract has just been extended to 2029, I imagine they are quite content with the value for money.'
Fergus Mayne, UK and Ireland manager at Motorola, added: 'Officers can serve communities in the streets, or do more training. This is the key piece: it's a real time-saver.'
There are more innovations to come.
Lancashire Police's Blackpool divisional headquarters, on the outskirts of the northern city
Mr Mayne told journalists gathered in Blackpool of cameras that can be trained in AI pattern recognition to spot when something is amiss - someone lurking outside a building at 2am, for example — and the ever-contentious topic of facial recognition.
Doubtless, there will be questions asked over technology like that as well as body-worn cameras - now omnipresent, worn by everyone from train managers to supermarket staff.
But the technology is here to stay and means officers are out on the streets, where they belong — no robot upgrades required.
A former police officer who served with another force told MailOnline: 'Anything that is going to have more coppers' feet on the ground can only be good news for both officers and the public.
'I would spend so much of my shift being weighed down by paperwork and writing up statements at the station when all I wanted was to be out on the streets.
'Being a police officer shouldn't be an admin job and this looks like a streamlined approach that is going to make officers' lives a bit easier and will allow them to be doing what they signed up for: fighting crime.'
