New Centre For Police Productivity Must Show Tangible Results

The Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said he wants to see “tangible results” from a new multi-million-pound centre that uses data and AI to free up officer time on the frontline.

The new Centre for Police Productivity, housed at the College of Policing, will use new digital tools to spot emerging crime trends and tactics to drive efficiency.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “This sounds good in practice, so let’s give it a chance. But I want to see the tangible results this brings and I want to see the before and after. With Right Care, Right Person in this force, we can say we’ve seen a percentage reduction on demand. We need to see something similar to that.”

Steve said that officers were currently struggling with too much bureaucracy and red tape.

He said: “Officers criticise our Connect system that we’ve got in place, as it can take hours to do simple files. Think of the public service gap that leads to. And then you’ve got the demands of our partner agencies like the CPS. It’s all bureaucracy and nobody centrally is getting a grip on it and saying, ‘No, we’re not doing this any more’.”