A new computer system will enable Police Scotland to improve efficiency and services across the country, with officers in rural areas among the first to benefit from the multi-million-pound system.

The £3.9 million investment in the National Network Project, dubbed NatNet2, will give officers across Scotland access to video conferencing and faster file sharing.

The system is expected to deliver increased network performance, stability and capability by removing legacy network services and directing them to BT as a single provider.

A damning report last year claimed that ‘urgent’ technological upgrades to Police Scotland’s IT system were years overdue. The report from deputy chief officer David Page warned that Police Scotland’s out-of-date IT equipment requires £200 million to modernise it and bring it up-to-date.

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Nearly two years prior to the report, the service’s ambitious £46 million i6 computer project was intended to bring together more than 100 existing systems that previously belonged to Scotland’s eight police forces. A series of glitches were discovered, though, and the project was eventually cancelled.

NatNet2 has already been installed in 20 pilot sites across the country ahead of a phased national roll-out until March 2020. The project is a key component of the organisation’s 10-year strategy to improve policing in Scotland and forms part of its Digital, Data and ICT Strategy.

Commenting on the new system roll-out, interim director of ICT, Martin Low, said: “Delivering new network services for Police Scotland will have a big impact on the working lives of our officers and staff, and improvements to the network underpin our programme of technology-enabled transformation.

“NatNet2 will ease some of the frustrations colleagues feel about how our systems perform on a day-to-day basis.”

Officers involved in the pilot had previously complained they struggled to upload files of any size. However, under NatNet2, video interview files up to 40mb in size can be accessed in just a few seconds.

Video conferencing is also now available in many areas, with officers able to access the network in a few seconds. Previously, officers complained that even logging on to a legacy system could take up to 10 minutes.