BlueprintCo was established to make a difference to policing and drive greater operational impact. Founders Ben Barnes and Charlotte Taylor had both worked on law enforcement projects and spotted some recurring gaps in how new policing capabilities were mapped out, implemented and governed.
These conversations led to BlueprintCo being created almost three years ago. The company specialises in reviewing and delivering complex, high-risk policing capabilities, particularly where new technology, data or policy intersect with live operations.
As Barnes explains “The challenge isn’t the technology itself, but how it’s introduced into an already complex policing system. Our role is to make sure new capabilities improve operational outcomes without creating unintended risk.”
BlueprintCo has been part of the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) community since 2023, working on 12 commissions so far. The company frequently leads discovery work to assess how planned new policing capabilities would need to operate in practice, including deployment considerations and necessary safeguards.
One commission the company worked on looked at the impact of AI and deepfakes on investigating child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and how AI detection technology could potentially help overcome this. Ultimately, this work demonstrated that AI could not be relied on in isolation, highlighting the importance of strong human-in-the-loop safeguards.
Another commission examined how law enforcement can communicate about how it is using AI in a way that supports transparency and public understanding without compromising operational security. BlueprintCo drew on approaches used internationally and in sectors such as banking and local government to inform a balanced communications framework.
Taylor said “The value of ACE commissions is the ability to test ideas quickly while maintaining proper scrutiny. We aim to leave policing with clear options and next steps, rather than open-ended analysis.”
Treating policing as a system
The BlueprintCo team is now seven strong, with a variety of different experiences within policing spanning domain expertise as well as implementing or rolling out capabilities. They also have partners and SMEs experienced in business change they can draw on as needed.
Barnes said “BlueprintCo brings together deep operational policing and data expertise with large-scale programme delivery and risk management. That combination allows us to integrate new capabilities safely into complex policing environments.
“We treat policing as a system. That means looking beyond user requirements to the wider operational, legislative and political context that shapes how capabilities can be introduced and sustained.”
In terms of the benefits of being part of the ACE community, Taylor said “Partnering is great to meet other like-minded companies but also being able to contribute meaningfully to high impact areas and operate in areas that are really affecting policing now.”
Barnes added “We’ve also taken some of these partnerships outside of ACE to bring different expertise together to deliver value.
“A lot of ACE stuff is on the front end of what government is thinking. This is not only great to get involved in but from a business perspective it increases our understanding of what the police issue is, which is invaluable.”