Is iPaaS finally the answer to interoperability for policing?
Is iPaaS finally the answer to interoperability for policing?
By Simon Hall, CEO, PoliceBox
The Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) published by the Home Office in February 2023 sets out key priorities for police forces to meet the biggest threats to public safety. It defines the capabilities that are necessary to deliver on these requirements but generally not the means by which the capabilities are to be achieved. A big question is: do forces have the necessary IT infrastructure to successfully deliver against these requirements?
Effective policing revolves around information. It is essential that reliable information is securely available to those who need it; be they police officers, members of the public, the broader justice system or other agencies. This, in the widest sense, requires interoperability between the many software systems that process information, both within forces and between forces and agencies. Most of the requirements in the SPR require the ability to share information securely and quickly.
Currently, many forces rely on legacy software systems which do not easily share information. To address this, major software vendors such as records management providers have extended their products to connect to other software systems on a point-to-point basis. This effectively makes these vendors the gatekeepers of interoperability – if a product is not on their list, it is unlikely to get through procurement, as forces face the cost and risk of adding a new integration.
To meet the requirements of the SPR, forces could benefit from using innovative software – but if that software cannot easily be integrated with legacy systems, that opportunity is lost.
In our daily lives, we take for granted that we can apply for a mortgage on our smartphones and get an almost immediate answer, or that our pharmacy can check in seconds whether we are eligible for a free prescription. In both cases, behind the scenes, many sources of information from diverse sources are being orchestrated into a secure process that produces an answer in seconds. Yet the proven technologies behind these innovations have not yet found their way into policing.
But things could rapidly change, if the appropriate resources can be found to make the transition.
The way forward
The need to transition police IT from legacy architecture to modern apps and cloud platforms is essential to delivering a police service fit for the 21st Century. The stars are starting to align to pave the way for the rapid innovation of policing technology:
- Procurement frameworks, such as G-Cloud, allow SaaS solutions to be acquired quickly without the need for the arduous, outdated, and unnecessary OJEU tender process that is not optimised for buying services that already exist and are constantly evolving.
- The National Enabling Programmes (NEP) created a cloud baseline architecture for forces, allowing new services to be deployed more quickly. It also provided a common way of identifying end users across the whole of policing, removing a major barrier to sharing information.
- Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) products are emerging as the standard approach for interoperability, providing a way to connect these new services quickly, and without the need for the dominant legacy application vendors to write bespoke code.
The last point could easily be overlooked as a technical detail, but the lack of interoperability between police IT systems has long prohibited forces and agencies from working together as efficiently as they should, so the emergence of a solution should be a welcome sight for officers.
Why is interoperability important?
Interoperability is the key to seamless collaboration between different systems. It enables data access, transformation, orchestration, transmission, and integrity, so that organisations can work more efficiently and productively.
In law enforcement, interoperability enables different departments, agencies and systems to communicate more effectively when responding to incidents, investigating, and preventing crime. It also improves communication and collaboration when managing frontline procedures and providing better communication with victims and the broader public.
Almost every investigation of a major crime that is deemed to have been preventable will cite a lack of data sharing as a contributing factor. Investigations are slowed down by ineffective data sharing between forces, where siloed data records enable criminals to evade justice for too long as they move around the country, as their records are often not joined up and patterns become easier to miss.
Better interoperability would greatly benefit policing, but there are obstacles that must be overcome. Connecting legacy systems has already taken a lot of time and money, and a lack of financial and technical resources is a barrier to building a modern, interoperable system. All the necessary ingredients are there, but a catalyst is needed to make it happen – this is where iPaaS comes in.
Progress so far
Police forces already have some level of software system interoperability, but there are challenges that hold back further progress. Different software systems each use their own languages, interfaces and data definitions, making it difficult to make them work together. This often leads to data silos, isolated pools of information that are hard to connect and monitor.
Each vendor typically offers their own integration products, which must understand the proprietary interfaces of other products that they integrate with. This dilutes software vendors’ resources away from their core activities. Making changes to one vendor’s system can mean making changes to other vendors’ systems it is connected to. This makes the process both technically and contractually complex and limits the ability of forces to be agile and innovative. Forces can also be locked in to the dominant vendors as they also provide the integration.
How iPaaS unlocks interoperability in policing
The key is to regard interoperability as a software system in its own right. Instead of having different vendors' products communicate directly with each other, a common interoperability application is used as the central point of connection between all applications. Much like how a conductor coordinates the activities of an orchestra, the larger the orchestra, the bigger the benefits.
Earlier generations of these interoperability applications were often called an ‘Enterprise Service Bus’, but these were complex beasts requiring specialist development skills.
Cloud technology and the emergence of straightforward ‘API’ interfaces has led to the development of a new generation of interoperability applications known as Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS). iPaaS solves the interoperability challenge by providing a universal “bridge” for applications to work together. These platforms have built-in "low code" tools that make it easier to connect different systems, via exposed APIs and other available interfaces.
iPaaS can connect systems together and manage workflows in one central location using built-in intelligence. Through this, improved communication and collaboration between departments can be achieved. This also includes outside organisations such as other agencies or government bodies.
This approach decouples applications from each other, making it easier to add new features, or new applications. In simple terms, as long as applications consume and generate the correct data, the task of joining them together according to business rules is handled by the interoperability function. This also gives a single point from which to monitor and audit the flow of information.
In today's digital age, the ability to integrate new software systems quickly and easily can give any organisation a competitive advantage. For policing, this can provide a competitive edge over ever more sophisticated criminal activity, at a time when resources are limited.
How to get there?
Enhancing interoperability is not just about the technology. It also requires a strong focus on data governance, regulatory compliance, trust relationships, data quality, and organisational culture.
To help realise this, there has already been a deployment of Office 365 and Microsoft Azure cloud technology to UK Police forces.
This also provides a common means of securely identifying users across multiple departments. APIs, iPaaS, and cloud adoption now provide the conditions police forces need to be able to interoperate effectively.
However, to achieve real change, there needs to be a cultural shift, particularly in procurement practices:
- Forces should consider interoperability as a separately procurable function, not as an optional extra built into other applications. This element is likely to require some form of seed funding, as no single operational requirement is likely to justify the cost of establishing an integration platform on its own.
- In any new procurement or contract renewal, forces should require all software vendors to supply open integration APIs, to support incoming and outgoing data flows.
- At a national level, establish an API marketplace open to forces, agencies, and registered vendors.
- Establish a means of sharing interoperability requirements and configurations, to prevent duplication of work across forces.
- Develop an affordable transition plan so that vendors move away from integrating directly with other vendors’ products.
The next step on the NEP journey?
The National Enabling Programmes (NEP) brought Azure Cloud technology to UK police forces.
The next logical stride toward digital transformation would be the adoption of iPaaS systems to allow applications, whether in the cloud or on-premises, to work together more effectively.
By investing in iPaaS architectures forces can streamline their processes, optimise resource allocation, and ultimately save time and money. The result can be the emergence of a vibrant and competitive marketplace of applications for policing and public safety.
This will improve the agility and interoperability of the UK police forces, allowing them to adapt to new challenges such as the 2023 Strategic Policing Requirement.
