The Police Science Council (PSC) is a publicly appointed, independent expert  committee which brings world-leading science and social science expertise  from academic and industry. Each quarter, the PSC meet to provide advice to policing and for each meeting, a member of the PSC will provide an insight into the discussions taking place. Below, Professor Mark Lorch describes his experiences of the June 2023 meeting.

A feature of all Police Science Council meetings is a show-and-tell of key innovations being deployed by our host police force. Over the course of the last year, and our tour of the country's constabularies, we've seen drones, 3D scans of city centres, rapid video call 'visits' from police officers and VR simulations of crime scenes. We've seen how these are being deployed to support officers in the field, provide critical information to policing at sporting events, prevent domestic abuse and train forensic scientists.

Robotic Process Automation

This time, Lancashire Constabulary showcased their latest robots. Now, I expect you have a sci-fi-inspired picture of an android with a badge firmly lodged in your mind. But scrub the image of Robocop. Lancs police's robots don't walk, talk, or have any form of intelligence, and they have no physical presence at all. Instead, they are pure software designed to automate mundane processes normally carried out by humans.

Just one way the robots are being deployed is in support of an incredibly effective modern version of neighbourhood watch. Businesses and residents have been asked to register their CCTV cameras and smart doorbells to create a community-led web of cameras. Then, if an incident is reported in a given location, an officer contacts the owners of the cameras and asks for the relevant video. However, trawling through the database, emailing everyone to ask for their footage, and viewing hours of video is tedious and time-consuming.

Now, with the help of the robots, this process takes just a few clicks. The officer highlights the incident on a map, ring-fences an area of interest, and deploys the robot. The robot interrogates the database, finding all the registered cameras within the highlighted region, emails all the owners, and politely requests their footage from the time window of interest. It also asks the owner to view the video and upload it along with a description of any suspicious activity recorded by their device. This brilliant combination of robot process automation, public engagement, and community policing has had a demonstrable effect on burglaries.

Police Science Council Workstreams

Members of the Science Council have a number of areas in which they are focusing their attention.

Professor Adam Crawford is leading a workstream looking into the links between poverty, crime, and social problems. Professor Mark Lorch described a report detailing issues affecting the presentation of data in courts. Professor Tamsin Mather provided a follow-up on threats posed by bioterrorism. Professor Paul Martin described insider risk and how issues with police vetting can be addressed. Coincidentally, Paul also has a new book on the subject.

Police STAR Funding

The Police STAR fund provides police forces with resources to develop evidence-based innovations in Science, Technology, Analysis, and Research.

The breadth of topics being funded this year ranges from the use of smart speakers to make non-emergency calls to the police to a searchable database of footwear caught on camera.

The fund is a highly successful means of supporting, recognising, and promoting the use of research methods to drive innovations in policing. Find out more about the Police STAR Fund on science.police.uk.

We would like to thank Chief Constable Chris Rowley, and his team and Lancashire Constabulary for hosting the Police Science Council and providing such valuable insights into the science and technology being used to enhance policing.