Fotoware for Crime Scene Examiners into Azure

This decision concerns providing Forensic Services in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) with a modern and long-term solution to the processing, storage and accessibility of forensic photography. This embraces contemporary digital technology hosted in the MPS cloud and will streamline working practices. Fotoware Crime Scene Examiner (CSE) software has been identified as a suitable product through use in the FIMS project – storage of images and video for Facial Imaging Management Software.

The additional rollout of Fotoware for CSEs will change the landscape of the submission of evidential forensic images from a standalone system inaccessible to the frontline to being incorporated onto the MPS Aware network where it will become the digital workspace of practitioners, police officers, investigators and external partners through a dynamic and automated cloud based platform. It will supersede the current processes that are reliant on old technology, manual processing and a despatch system to securely copy, store and share digital forensic evidential images.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Note the initiation of procurement via the Softcat Value added re-seller for the Fotoware Enterprise Site Licence for 40,000 users

2. Approve contract award via the Softcat Value added re-seller for the Fotoware Enterprise Site Licence for 40,000 users. This was procured via the framework “Health Trust Europe”. This is a call-off contract within scope and value of the HTE Framework and complies with Public Contract Regulations 2015.

3. Approved a total project cost of £2,070,966.91, which will be funded out of existing budgets, broken down as:

• Total capital investment of £940,975.93, which will be funded from revenue budgets via a Revenue Contribution to Capital Outlay; and

• Revenue investment of £564,995.49 per year for 2 subsequent years. These project costs are funded from existing budgets.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The recommendation of this paper is the purchase and implementation of 40,000 Fotoware Enterprise Site Licences for the upload, storage and sharing of evidential images. This will allow for a small number of user types including uploaders (scene examiners), viewers (investigating officers), and editors (forensic practitioners) enabling an end to end process for the storage of forensic evidential images.

1.2. The 40,000 Enterprise Site licences will also allow user access to both Facial Imaging Management Software (FIMS) and Crime Scene Examiner (CSE) instances of Fotoware and therefore enabling a greater user base under each licence.

1.3. The MPS currently supports 23,000 licences on an existing On-Prem version of Fotoware (FIMS) of which anyone in the MPS can use to access FIMS (CCTV caught on camera images) via the intranet. In order to allow account for the addition of the investigating officers, crime scene examiners and forensics practitioners 40,000 licences are required for access to the Fotoware CSE instance. As Medialogix licencing model allows for the purchase of licences in blocks of 10,000 it is clear that 40,000 licences will be required to accommodate for the number of users the MPS has.

1.4. Fotoware is customisable to automate many steps of the current process bringing time saving efficiencies for practitioners with reduced data entry (no double keying) and witness statement creation using available data and presents users with a single viewing and requesting platform to meet operational and evidential requirements of Police investigations which will allow the Investigating Officer real-time access to crime scene images.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The Fotoware application will enable immediate access to images for incident response and investigation by officers and forensic practitioners. The import of evidential images into this auditable image library with relevant access permissions to all CSEs, forensic practitioners and investigating officers, allows them to begin processing evidential material at the earliest opportunity, rather than having to wait for what can be days / weeks with the current As Is process. Further information is contained in the restricted section of the report.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. There is a total project cost of £2,070,966.91 – of which:

• Total capital investment cost of £940,975.93 funded from existing budgets. This will be matched by a revenue contribution to capital outlay - it will therefore not increase the MPS’ capital financing costs.

• Total ongoing revenue cost of £564,995.49 per year for 2 subsequent years funded from existing budgets.

3.2. There will be additional ongoing revenue costs from 2024/25 of £83k p.a. For the first six years this will be funded out of existing budgets, after which this cost will be managed by finding savings elsewhere within Forensic Services.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. This software application will support legal compliance with the requirements of MOPI guidance and GDPR.

4.2. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“MOPAC”) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £189,330 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold. The MOPAC’s route to market is compliant with the Regulations.

4.3. The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve:

• Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above (paragraph 4.8)

• All requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest (paragraph 4.13)

• Award of MOPAC contracts with a total value of £500,000 or above (paragraph 4.15).

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. Approval of Fotoware CSE procurement is sought for contract award to Softcat, a Value added reseller for Fotoware licensing and support services worth £858,546.87 for a period of three years, from October 2020.

5.2. Softcat is a MOPAC approved value added reseller contract from the HealthTrust Europe Framework. This is a call-off contract within scope and value of the Softcat contract and complies with Public Contract Regulations 2015.

5.3. The following commercial principles were applied:

• Obtain cost certainty, reduce commercial risk and agree fit for purpose contracts. Procuring via Softcat, a MPS value-added reseller enables price transparency and provides MPS access to lowest cost across the supply chain.

• Compliant with public contract regulations 2015. The procurement strategies are compliant with the public contract regulations 2015.

• Obtain value for money. The MPS has negotiated a £383,543 reduction in cost for Fotoware licences.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

6.2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

6.3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements.

6.4. A DPIA has been completed for this project. The project will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. This business case has undergone initial equality screening. Due regard has been taken to the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty. Real consideration has been taken to assess equality impact caused by the proposed business changes.

7.2. As a result no positive or negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and those who are not.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report.