West Yorkshire Police awarded £700k for digital crime scene project

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has today awarded £700,000 to West Yorkshire Police as the government seeks to transform the way forces work.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a £23m investment into policing projects. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire.Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a £23m investment into policing projects. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a £23m investment into policing projects. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire.

It is part of a £23m investment in 14 ground-breaking projects in England and Wales, which have been selected by the Police Reform and Transformation Board.

West Yorkshire will use its share to explore how a crime scene image such as a fingerprint or footwear print could be digitally transmitted from the scene in order to speed up analysis. It receive £280,000 in 2016/17, with a further £420,000 in 2017/18.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Rudd said: “The job of reforming the police must continue and these successful bids demonstrate exactly the kind of transformative thinking that we expect from forces, with creative plans which will enable them to be more efficient and serve their communities more effectively.”

The grants have been awarded from the Police Transformation Fund, which was set up as part of the 2015 Spending Review.

The successful bids, from 10 forces and the College of Policing, include projects to add new technology to the Child Abuse Image Database, improve procurement and collaboration, and fund a network of co-ordinators, analysts and prevention officers for the Child Sexual Abuse National Action Plan.

A total of £76.4m is available for police transformation in 2016/17, including £34m allocated to enhance armed policing capability and £4.6m for police digital programmes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Brandon Lewis, Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, added: “The fund is a fantastic way of supporting policing as it faces future challenges, and I look forward to seeing the successful projects being taken forward.”