Critical Factors and Patterns in the Innovation Process

Policing is a complex setting for innovation, influenced by a range of social, economic, and political factors. Nonetheless, police forces are faced with the unavoidable choice of innovating in order to address criminal activity, improve organizational efficiency, and appease public concerns. In this article, we report on an investigation of innovation in UK police forces in order to augment our understanding of the state of innovation. We examine the current emergence of innovation, the processes involved, and the important factors that pattern innovation. The AIMTech is a research group within the Leeds University Business School that focuses on the interrelationship between new technologies, information management, and organizational change. The main academic research areas within AIMTech are information behaviour and practices, innovation, evaluation of information systems, and design of information services. Over the last 5 years, the group has worked closely with a number of police forces and other emergency services in these fields.