Welcome to Pontypandy Police Force and its Data-Driven initiative. This is the first post,  in a series, about building a data culture and how Power BI can help you create that culture. In this post, we’ll introduce you to the scenario we are going to analyse that involves a fictitious police force called Pontypand Police Force. Berry Wand, a newly appointed Chief Data Officier for Pontypandy Police Force (If you’re wondering where you have heard that before, think Fireman Sam. It is the village in South Wales, the home of fireman Sam).

This post intends to provide a scenario, setting the scene if you like, that we will refer back to in future posts.

In subsequent posts, we will provide a step-by-step guide for building a data culture. We will also examine how Power BI can support and foster a data culture.

The scenario Pontypandy’s data-driven initiative

We have come up with the following scenario, based on fictitious characters and organisations. We will refer back to this, and we will likely update the scenario as we discuss and talk about this journey too.

As the newly appointed Chief Data Officer of the Pontypandy Police Force, Berry Wand has what feels like a daunting task ahead of her. She is tasked with building a data culture within the police force, something that had never been done before. Despite the challenges ahead, Berry was excited about the opportunity to make a real difference in how the police force operated.

Deputy Chief Constable (The Police’s equivalent of a COO) Graham had made it clear that he wanted the police force to make better use of data. Still, Berry knew that not everyone on the senior leadership team shared this vision. Some were sceptical about the benefits of data analytics, while others didn’t understand it.

Berry knew that she needed to build a strong case for a data-driven approach. She also identified some of the challenges she would be faced in achieving her goal. At a high level, some of the problems she faced include

1. Resistance to change: One of the biggest challenges Berry would face is resistance to change. The police force may be set in its ways and may not be willing to embrace a data-driven approach. For example, IT had its way of working and saw no reason to change. They could see that there was a lot of work involved. It would potentially change the way they work and would be a significant change for them. They saw no reason to do things differently. Other teams, Finance, believe they are the only people that matter when it comes to reporting data. Most importantly, some members of the senior leadership team are “old-school police officers”. They believe trusting their instincts got them to where they are and see no value in changing now. They could see it was a lot of workSome members of the senior leadership team may be sceptical of the benefits of data analytics and may be hesitant to invest time and resources into it.
2. Lack of resources: Another challenge Berry may face is a lack of resources. While she has the COO’s buy-in, she doesn’t yet have everyone in the Senior leadership team bought in. Building a data-driven culture requires a significant investment in technology, personnel, and training. The police force may not have the budget or resources necessary to fully implement a data-driven approach.
3. Senior Leadership team changes: Berry doesn’t know this yet, but about two weeks after taking up her post, her sponsor for the initiative, Graham, is going to leave the business. Graham is currently the main sponsor of the data-culture initiative. This could potentially leave her high and dry when it comes to achieving her objectives.

There will be other challenges that we will discuss as we make us through this process.

Other posts in the series

Links to the other posts in the series will appear here