Police forces in England and Wales spend around 97 percent of their £2 billion ($2.6 billion) annual technology budget on maintaining legacy systems, an official report has found.

Fragmented and stop-start technology investment has resulted in the police being slow to adopt new technologies — and benefit from the expected productivity improvements — at a national level, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).

The UK's independent public spending watchdog said that in the financial year 2024-25, His Majesty's Treasury provided £234 million over four years to help fund investments in police technology, including £55.5 million in that year. "The Home Office used this to help support the rollout of technologies, including live facial recognition, the use of drones, automa

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