Making an impact on the frontline: engaging with the Home Office’s research

Every year, Home Office Science seconds seasoned officers into the folds of government to contribute their expertise to shaping smarter, evidence-led innovations that strengthen public safety and future-proof policing. We hear from Detective Superintendent Richard Myszczyszyn, one such officer who is ensuring policing’s operational requirements are reflected in Home Office Science priorities.

I began my secondment with the Home Office Science, Innovation and Technology (SIT) team in May this year, after 23 years with Lincolnshire Police.

Since joining SIT, I’ve had the privilege of leading a team of police and borders advisers who provide operational insight to government. Highlights have included reviewing specialist underwater and underground search capabilities, exploring the rise of AI and its potential to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), delivering cost efficiencies amid ongoing financial pressures and improving confidence in the criminal justice system. I’ve also been involved in developing technology to rapidly identify the most dangerous synthetic drugs and assessing tools that support risk management plans for registered sex offenders.

In the rest of this article, I’d like to talk you through the Home Office’s priorities and the recently published Research Development and Innovation Strategy:

The Home Office play a vital role in protecting the public from our streets to our borders as threats emerge. The priorities of the Home Office are grouped into three areas: Public Safety, Migration and Borders, and Homeland Security.

These encompass priorities ranging from the reduction of knife crime and VAWG, enhancing operations at the border and countering the threat posed by new technologies such as drones and AI-enabled crime.

Research, Development and Innovation Strategy:

Published in March 2025, the RDI Strategy sets out how we harness research and innovation to tackle the Home Office’s most complex challenges. Some of our recent achievements include:

• Live Facial Recognition technology deployed to several forces to target and arrest high-harm criminals and suspects.
• Significant cost and time savings through implementation of AI-enabled investigation tools to tackle grooming gangs.
• Reduction in knife-enabled robberies driven by tactics such as drones, knife arches and detection dogs.

The Forensic Information Database Service (FINDS) also sits within the Home Office. Their service forms a crucial part of the criminal justice system and this year we are celebrating 30 years of the National DNA Database.

To continue making a real difference on the frontline, we encourage all policing colleagues to engage with the RDI Strategy and seek out opportunities to contribute to
future projects.

^{Cover image: Concept generated with AI.}