NPIA's mobile forensics will save £3m a year

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) is inviting private sector companies to develop technology that will enable forensic analysis to take place at crime scenes.

Currently, DNA analysis and fingerprinting can only be performed in the laboratory, which is both costly and time consuming.

The NPIA hopes this initiative will save police forces in the region of £3m per year, and greatly speed up their forensic investigations.

Simon Bramble, head of police science and forensics at the NPIA, said: "This represents a great opportunity for the private sector to get involved in developing a major technical innovation that will help the police service save time and money in analysing crime scene evidence."

He added that companies will need to roll out technology that is able to produce results quickly, if they expect police forces to invest money in the solutions.

"The challenge for would-be suppliers will be to produce easy-to-use, portable technology that can produce results in less than an hour."

A spokesperson from the NPIA told Computing that interested private sector firms will develop the technology at their own expense, recouping their costs by selling the resulting products to UK police forces.

He added that the technology needed may already exist and might just need to be adapted to enable mobile DNA analysis rather than be invented from nothing.

The aim is to have the new technology operational in spring 2012.

Further details about the project will be unveiled at a supplier event on 15 December at the agency's CSI training centre at Harperley Hall, in Durham. The NPIA is urging interested companies to attend the event.