Many Metropolitan Police officers are using desktop PCs that take more than half an hour to log on, with experts suggesting that the force is to blame for its failure to develop a long-term IT strategy.
John Biggs, chair of the London Assembly's Budget and Performance Committee, said: "It is shocking that some police officers in London are forced to wait more than 30 minutes just to turn on a desktop computer. The public want to see officers on the street tackling crime, not struggling with antique technology back at the station."
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Speaking at a meeting of the committee, assistant commissioner Mark Rowley warned that nearly 70 per cent of the Met's IT platforms are obsolete, and that the number could rise to 90 per cent by 2016.
Rowley stated the police force's technology was "not in a good place", pointing to the use of 400 separate IT systems, with some dating back to the 1970s as one of the reasons. Another example he gave was how officers recording a crime may have to enter the name of suspects and witnesses more than 12 times on separate systems.
This was the second meeting that the committee has held, with the expert panel in the first meeting stating that up to 30,000 new mobile devices which are to be distributed to Metropolitan Police officers could end up as "costly paperweights".
At today's meeting, Rowley said that the new mobile devices the Met hopes will streamline the process of recording crimes will take another two years to deliver.
Faith Boardman, non-executive adviser at the mayor's office for policing and crime, added that the Met simply did not possess a long-term IT strategy, and that it is now paying the price for its failure to think about technology properly.
At the end of February, the committee revealed that it would be investigated how the Met could improve its use of technology while cutting IT spending by £42m in 2013-14 and a further £60m in 2015-16. A week later, an expert panel claimed that the force needed to stop buying the "shiny newest technology" in order to make IT savings in the next few years.
Currently, the Met spends about £325m a year on technology, a third of which is designated to Capgemini in a deal that is scheduled to end in 2015.
