THE POLICE DATA CHALLENGE Copyright Policing Insight/Cognyte 2023 learning or artificial intelligence.” That issue of digital, data and technology literacy among police leaders is again not just a UK one, as James Foubister, who works for New Zealand Police alongside Insp Carla Gilmore, explained: “Technology leadership is not a traditional skill held in policing. I think that’s part of the challenge – It’s not culturally been part of police for the last 150 years “I think in ages past, it was easy to devolve that decision making to somebody else, to say, ‘Look, I don’t want to deal with this, this is too techy, this is for somebody else’. Having an understanding of a human future with technology is going to take some real thought from leaders and managers. “We see managers and assistant commissioners grappling with these things, and leaning in, rather than going, ‘oh gosh, this is for the too hard basket’.” Human value Regardless of the best way to address the skills gap, there’s little doubt among police leaders and technology experts about the value of the human resource in meeting the data challenge. One example where that value has been realised is in the work of the UK’s Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) programme, led by Detective Chief Supt Kate Thacker. Originally prompted by conversations between Det Ch Supt Thacker and then Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who was the NPCC Violence and Public Protection lead, TOEX was set up to provide specialist intelligence and analytical expertise in support of forces investigating crimes involving complex organised exploitation, including county lines, modern slavery, human trafficking, and child sexual exploitation. The benefits of that analysis and intelligence expertise, and being able to access resources and data sources at a national and international scale, has seen the original pilot grow from TOEX staff in three regional organised crime units (ROCUs) two years ago, to around 150 staff embedded in