forensic policing—a perspective
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Special Issue PerspectivePublished online in Wiley Interscience: 9 September 2009
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/sia.3107
Forensic Policing – A Perspective
John Armstrong began his career in the Forensicand Police Scientific Support arena in 1984 byjoining the Metropolitan Police as a Scenes of CrimeOfficer, now commonly referred to as a Crime SceneInvestigator (CSI). Throughout the 10 years servedin this force, he was stationed predominantly inthe East End of London carrying out tasks such asattending all ranges of crime scenes to examine forforensic and fingerprint evidence, giving adviceto investigating officers, attending court as anexpert witness, liaising with forensic scientists and
submitting exhibits to forensic science laboratories.In 1993 he transferred to Surrey Police and held a number of roles
there, culminating in the position of Scientific Support Manager, withresponsibility for over 80 forensic and scientific support staff across eightdifferent scientific units.
During 2007, John began work with the National Policing ImprovementAgency (NPIA) on a national project developing a forensic laboratoryservices procurement framework for use by the UK police forces.
In 2008, John became the Science Strategy Manager within the NPIA,with responsibility for the development of the 2009–2014 Police Scienceand Technology Strategy which includes, amongst other aspects, therequirement to harness scientific research, development and innovationfor the benefit of policing.
The views expressed in this article are those of John Armstrong and notof the NPIA
The UK Policing Perspective
The police service in the UK continues to depend heavily on theuse of science to operate effectively in the fight against crime.The application of forensic science and other scientific technologyplays a pivotal role, a role that is found in almost every major orserious crime investigation such as murder, robbery and rape andalso in a significant proportion of less serious crime investigationssuch as burglary and vehicle crime.
As such, there remains a continuing and growing need to ensurethat future scientific research, development and innovation areharnessed for maximum police operational benefit, meeting boththe immediate need and any potential future requirements.
To meet these challenges, the National Policing ImprovementAgency (NPIA) in the UK is currently looking to develop a PoliceScience and Technology Strategy on behalf of the Association ofChief Police Officers (ACPO), the Association of Police Authorities(APA) and the Home Office (HO).
This strategy will include areas of activity such as ensuringthat any new scientific strategies meet the overall needs ofpolicing and developing a better understanding of how scientificresearch and innovation can be embraced in a way that allowsthe police to utilise new technologies as quickly as possible.This will bring together wider scientific disciplines such as socialscience, medical science, forensic science and physical scienceinto one coherent science innovation stream. It will also caterfor developing, maintaining and operating a science innovationbusiness model that allows for and maximises opportunities
from scientific research, development and innovation to becommercially introduced into police operation.
The future advances in science and technology must be fullyexploited and opportunities maximised, but not in isolation.Those people involved in scientific research must be cognisant ofGovernment policies, policing priorities and requirements in orderto ensure that their activities are fully aligned with the overallneeds of policing.
In order to achieve this, the worlds of policing, academia, in-dustry, commerce and forensic laboratory suppliers must workclosely together and coordinate their research activities. This willcreate a changed scientific landscape, moving away from the ‘re-active’, ad-hoc style of science development with often ill-definedrequirements, to one where science development and innovationis ‘proactive’, where the wider community is well-informed of thepolice requirements and where future research, development andinnovation are structured, coordinated and delivered efficientlyand effectively to meet the changing policing need.
A Coordinated Approach to Research
There is the need to develop a sustained and comprehensiveprogramme of research to provide the evidence base forfuture scientific policy and capability. Suppliers in the industrial,commercial, scientific, academic and engineering sectors are eagerto develop better relationships with the police and these wouldbenefit from a co-ordinated approach and clear articulation ofwhere future innovation and development need to be focused.Together with continuing engagement with science researchcouncils, this could provide the basis to secure aligned funding ofthe necessary future research programmes.
Complimenting this, forward planning for the police serviceneeds to be managed effectively through detailed horizon scan-ning and futures-assessments work across the principle scientificdisciplines.
Within the UK academic sector, there exists a substantial andenthusiastic number of individuals and groups who are currentlyengaged in scientific research activities to do with new ideas, tech-nologies and processes that may ultimately be of use to the police.
Some of these activities already involve close partnerships, withacademics working directly with individual police forces. Thesepartnerships have been well defined and well aligned to policingneeds. However, such activities have also historically come aboutvia ad hoc, isolated pieces of research that accidentally come to theattention of the police scientific communities, which then result ina degree of ‘back-engineering’ to provide the necessary focus oralignment to policing needs.
Universities are ideally suited to collaborative work with thepolice service, not least because of the non-commercial natureof the relationship. It is therefore vital for the police service toarticulate its broader scientific requirements and facilitate closerworking relationships with academia, and others. Police servicesmust coordinate as far as possible future research initiatives and
Surf. Interface Anal. 2010, 42, 341–342 c© Crown copyright 2009. Reproduced with the permission of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Special Issue Perspective
programmes, seizing on the opportunity to improve coordination,transparency and take a longer-term view of the programmesof work. The ever changing world of scientific developmentsand emerging technologies and the speed of change seen inrecent years will present further opportunities and drive forwardenhanced policing capabilities in the future.
There is a need for partners in the scientific, industrial,academic and general research sectors to remain up to datewith what the police science requirements are and to align newresearch and development projects to those requirements. Inaddition to this, suppliers or innovators must also have theability, facilitated by the police, to put forward new ideas andsuggestions that may indeed alter the way policing is carriedout, potentially bringing fundamental change to the originalrequirements themselves.
There would also be an onus on suppliers to be able togive assurances that new technologies for example, have beenrobustly tested, concepts proved and internal/external peerreviews undertaken, before they are presented or adopted intothe police’s innovation business development process.
Police Scientific Requirements
At the time of writing, the exact scientific requirements of the policeservice are still being developed and have yet to be published tothe wider community. However, as a general point, the policewill need enhanced capability that speeds up the investigativeprocess and that takes full opportunities from not only science butalso from technological advances in electronic and mobile datahandling.
Embracing this with other enhanced scientific techniques,equipment and processes should move the police sciencelandscape to being able to provide forensic information andintelligence to investigating officers, on-the-spot in real-time, asopposed to weeks and months later.
There will also be an emphasis on developing new ideasand approaches that enable some of the scientific processeshistorically undertaken in laboratories to be conducted atthe crime scene itself. This may entail the mobilisation andminiaturisation of scientific equipment to technically equip thecrime scene investigator (CSI) to undertake ‘on the spot’ forensicprocessing.
Whatever the future developments may bring, it is clear thatany new innovative ideas or technologies must provide specificpolice applications that increase the evidential usefulness andvalue or enhanced intelligence information that meet with theoverall police capability requirements.
Safeguards within Innovation
At the same time as developing and encouraging the widerscientific community to engage in research activities that alignwith the policing needs, we must remain vigilant in ensuring thatsafeguards are built into the processes to take account of suchmatters as Standards, Accreditation, Ethics, Commercialisation,Security and Environmental impact issues.
The use of forensic science in police investigations has anever increasing public awareness and the wider debate on policepowers and use of such technology has never been greater.
To that end, ensuring and reassuring the public that the sciencebeing used by the police in their investigations is both soundand fit for purpose is paramount and vital for the criminal justicesystem (CJS), to prevent any miscarriages of justice.
Systems will need to be in place to ‘test’ new developments,innovation and technologies against ethical issues, such as withthe police use of DNA, commercial issues surrounding IntellectualProperty Rights (IPR) and procurement regulations, together withStandards and Accreditation as set by the UK Forensic RegulatorsOffice.
Furthermore, the impact of policing activities on the environ-ment must in future have an added emphasis when consideringupdating, revising or developing new scientific and technologi-cal solutions. Ensuring that any environmental impact issues aregiven due regard and built into the development and imple-mentation phases as routine is paramount, as is paying particularattention to reducing the impact and carbon footprint of any newtechnological innovation development stream.
Conclusion
For someone involved in developing strategies for the applicationof science, technology and innovation within the UK police service,it is extremely pleasing to see in this special edition of Surfaceand Interface Analysis featured articles covering a wide range ofnew and innovative scientific techniques, many of which havepotential application in policing. Ongoing research of this natureis absolutely vital to the wider criminal justice community, if we areto remain at the forefront of scientific technological developmentsthat enable the police service to fully maximise the opportunitiesafforded from it to meet both the existing and future police sciencerequirements.
John ArmstrongScience Strategy Manager, National Policing Improvement Agency, UK
www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/sia c© Crown copyright 2009. Reproduced with the Surf. Interface Anal. 2010, 42, 341–342permission of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.