Policing London boroughs through Azure

Earlier on in the year Microsoft opened new UK base datacentres to host their Cloud Azure and Office 365 platforms (read about it here); this has opened doors to UK based companies who collect secure, sensitive data and allows them to store it in the cloud.

Yesterday it was announced by the London Metropolitan Police Service that they will be teaming up with Microsoft to roll out the new officer body camera program and that the data collected will be stored in Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure. The cameras have been developed by Microsoft’s partner company Axon, who have been tasked to deploy more than 22 thousand Body-Worn Video cameras to police officers across the 32 boroughs of London.

The idea of having these body cameras is to capture evidence that can later be examined and used if need be. The way it works is simple, an officer would record an entire shift on their camera, once finished they would have to upload the footage to Azure via a docking station at their police HQ. The beauty of storing this data in Azure is that officers and other law enforcement agencies can access the evidence at the touch of a button, or even real time depending on their security clearance; thus making matters case matters easier to access.

The Head of Mobile Tech at London Metropolitan Police said, “Microsoft is a long-term trusted supplier to the Met. We have extensive data security requirements and Microsoft have satisfied all our necessary audits. We wanted to store the data in the UK so we can provide transparency around our data and where it is kept, we have no concerns.”

This £10 million Cloud project is due to be completed by the summer of 2017; between now and then Microsoft’s datacentres would have been operational in the UK for more than a year, giving organisations like London’s Metropolitan Police Service a reliable and onshore Cloud platform. Companies across the UK will be storing data here securely; which bring me to the question, what are you doing with your data? Are you fully integrated with the cloud? Do you have a legacy database that needs bringing into the 21st century? Either way Microsoft Azure is part of DSP’s working culture so we are more than happy to help and share our knowledge.