Metropolitan Police CIO Ailsa Beaton to leave next year

Director of information Beaton to leave in mid-2013 after 12 years at Met Police

Ailsa Beaton, CIO at the Metropolitan Police, the top IT job in the police service, is to leave her post in mid-2013 after 12 years in the role.

Beaton, who arrived at the Met four commissioners ago, has led an across-the-board change in computing in the biggest police force in the UK.

As director of information, she arrived "before there was an organisation-wide email system, when information strategy was managed in a different business group from technology, when there were no service level agreements with the major outsourced service providers and before the introduction of a Police Authority in London," said the Met in a statement released this evening.

It added: "Her first major challenge was the then proposed Private Finance Initiative (PFI) programme, C3i, under which it was planned to outsource call handling and dispatch in the Met at the same time as introducing the new national police radio system. The outcome was an effective Met-led and operated service delivered on time and within the Home Office funding envelope."

Her key achievements over the past 12 years, according to the Met, include:

• The introduction of mobile technologies to operational policing;
• Significant improvements to the intelligence systems;
• The implementation of a ubiquitous ICT infrastructure;
• The introduction of new capabilities required by external changes such as social media monitoring;
• The timely provision of the ICT necessary to deliver an effective policing response during the Olympics, including the introduction of new capabilities particularly in the field of Geographic Information Systems; and,
• Providing the CT community with a secure national ICT infrastructure.

In 2005 Beaton became the first member of police staff to be elected by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) nationally as a portfolio lead, head of the information management business area, making her a member of both the ACPO 'cabinet' and Chief Constables' Council for the past seven years.

[Please turn to page two]

Metropolitan Police CIO Ailsa Beaton to leave next year

Director of information Beaton to leave in mid-2013 after 12 years at Met Police

In this role she has played a major part in the acquisition and adoption of a number of national systems and policies both in the Met and more widely. These include:

• National procurements such as the Police National Network and Airwave;
• Recommendations of Sir Michael Bichard's enquiry, notably the Police National Database and the Management of Police Information standards;
• Improvements to the management of information across the Criminal Justice System; and
• Freedom of Information Act provisions.

She was awarded an OBE in the 2010 New Year's Honours list for services to policing.

Until she finally leaves the organisation, Ailsa will work on attachment, supporting ACPO in concluding work on her national information management portfolio, and with the Home Office on national police ICT strategy.

"It has been an honour to work for the Met. Whilst I shall miss the dedication and support of those I have had the privilege to work with, it is time for me to move on to new challenges," said Beaton.

Computing talked to Ailsa Beaton earlier this week and will be running a profile feature covering some of the latest IT initiatives in the Metropolitan Police next week.