Metropolitan Police still undecided over iPad strategy 12 months after trial

Decision yet to be made on whether iPads are suitable for front-line policing

London's Metropolitan Police Service has so far failed to make a decision on the appropriate mobile hardware to provide to front-line officers, it has emerged, despite a lengthy trial and evaluation process.

That rollout was a limited trial between July 2014 and March 2015 to find out how police could use mobile devices to aid operations and determine the hardware that offers the best value for money.

In response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted to the Metropolitan Police by Computing's sister site V3, it was discovered that just 641 devices have been rolled out to officers in the Hammersmith and Fulham areas since plans were announced to provide 15,000 to 20,000 iPads to front-line police.

The Met spent £1.2m on hardware during that time, including the iPads and supporting servers and accessories, £4.1m on custom software development, which included the databases to support mobile operations, £600,000 on business and management activities and £100,000 on licences. The costs also include the replacement of 12 tablets during the trial period.

A spokeswoman from the force said that the 641 iPads remain in use and have been well received, but the trial did not result in the Met deciding to roll out iPads across its entire force.

The upshot is that £6m was spent on a trial that has so far yielded no firm decision on suitable hardware and systems for the Met.

However, the Met explained that the pilot is in part ongoing as it collects information and assesses the use of suitable mobile hardware. It is also worth noting than some of the software and back-end systems are reusable and not strictly limited to use with the iPads.

"There is ongoing development of a system to identify and roll out mobile technology to additional staff across the Metropolitan Police Service," said a spokesperson.

This extends beyond just looking at tablets, and is part of the Met's wider Total Technology Strategy that runs until 2017.

"Making our officers more mobile through technology such as tablets is a key part of our plans to make savings. It will ensure that front-line officers can maximise their time fighting crime in our communities and enable the continued reduction in the size of our estate."

The Met said that the force cannot speculate about the mobile technology it will end up using, nor is there any strict deadline as to when it will make such a decision.

But the spokesperson confirmed that the Met anticipates being able to move towards the procurement of role-specific equipment later in 2016 and to determine exactly how officers will best use mobile technology.

It appears to have taken the Met a year to start considering the next steps in evaluating the mobile technology it needs for front-line policing, indicating that it certainly does not move in the agile way that the Government Digital Service wants to encourage in the public sector.

But procuring technology at the Met is not a cut and dried process as new technology rollouts need to be compatible with the Met's existing IT infrastructure and back-end systems, which are also undergoing changes.

This means that procurement decisions need to be made in a rather fluid IT environment, and the Met needs to consider all the changes taking place to avoid rolling out hardware and software that may become obsolete or incompatible with the systems.

The process is further complicated as the Met's procurement process needs to be approved and signed off by the London Mayor's Office, and a new mayor is set be elected to replace Boris Johnson in May.