West Midlands Police to save up to £4m a year by cutting down on paper

Paperless system means fewer admin staff are required at the force

West Midlands Police (WMP) has implemented a two-way interface with the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS's) case management system, saving the force up to £4m a year.

WMP is the second force, after Greater Manchester Police, to switch to a paperless system as part of the Crown Prosecution Service's transforming through technology (T3) programme to move all paper-based processes to a fully digital way of working.

Head of Criminal Justice Unit at WMP, Steve Anderson, told Computing that the force was having problems using paper-based processes.

"Previously we used to have to complete every form on paper, whether it was evidence or compensation details and this moved slowly between the police force, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the courts and led to lengthy delays," he said.

In the first phase the WMP moved to a one-way electronic file system but this still meant that paper-based forms were used.

"We started using electronic file build but this only allowed us to create a one-way form of communication that is digital and everything came back to us in paper format.

"With the two-way interface we are now able to move information backwards and forwards between us and CPS and onto the courts in a purely electronic format," he said.

Anderson said the WMP chose criminal case management solutions provider STL Technologies for the two-way interface because it already had an STL product installed on its IT system.

"We've had a case and custody system from STL for the last 20 years, which is an online version of a paper document. But this did not allow us to create dialogue with the CPS and the courts. It was just for writing up evidence.

"The WMP then negotiated with STL on improving its product to include a two-way feature so that information could be sent both ways from the police to CPS or the courts and vice versa. The CPS can now update cases faster and make requests to our offices for specific tasks," he said.

Anderson said that the WMP predicts that the new system will save it between £3m and £4m a year.

"We will save up to £4m in costs because we need to employ fewer staff in the future to do all of the administrative tasks such as photocopying, filing and stamping," he said.

Anderson added that other police forces may struggle to implement a similar interface.

"For the majority of other police forces, this ability to move information electronically backwards and forwards is going to be a real challenge because their systems just don't allow them to do it.

"Each police force tends to buy its own IT systems, and as a result there's a mixture of systems across the different forces. Many of the IT systems don't have the capability to do what the STL product can do," he said.