The Police STAR Fund is the only innovation programme aimed at local policing. It is open to all NPCC forces and their PCCs, alongside national entities such as the National Crime Agency, College of Policing, Forensic Capability Network, NPCC, and Home Office.  

The Police STAR Fund was originally launched in 2020 by the Home Office. Since taking over the fund in 2021/22, OPCSA has supported 53 projects across 24 forces and 5 PCC offices, alongside 14 national projects with the College of Policing, Forensic Capability Network, the National Crime Agency, the NPCC and the Home Office; totalling over £9m of funding.  

A range of projects from across the NPCC S&T Strategy service lines have been funded through the Police STAR Fund. These include Rapid Video Response (RVR) for domestic assault, innovation to support digital forensics, the use of AI to intelligently triage 101 call requests, and the development of prototypes to improve mark retrieval from knives. A list of projects funded can be found on our ‘Police STAR Fund Projects’ page.  

Projects funded under the programme join our Police STAR fund community. Alongside providing funding, OPCSA also offer a range of opportunities to help support Police STAR fund project teams to innovate, network and disseminate their work. Projects funded under the programme have gone on to receive national recognition and funding from other sources to support further innovation development and rollout.