As one of the largest police forces in the United Kingdom, West Midlands Police serves a population of over 3.4 million people. With more than 90% of crimes now involving a digital element, the Digital Forensics unit has experienced a sharp increase in both the volume and complexity of data.
Increasing Data Volumes
The team processes over 100 case submissions per week, handling approximately 150 terabytes of data weekly. This rapid growth has placed significant strain on storage capacity, system performance, and operational workflows.
In addition to managing growing data volumes, West Midlands Police must comply with strict regulatory standards, including ISO 17025:2017 and Forensic Science Regulator requirements. Maintaining full data ownership within public sector budget constraints adds further complexity, requiring a solution that can scale efficiently, control long-term costs, and uphold the highest standards of data integrity and compliance.
Solution selected to support long-term data management
After evaluating available solutions, West Midlands Police deployed a Synology-based infrastructure to support digital investigations and long-term data management. Built around the HD6500, SA3600 with expansion units, and RS2423RP+, the solution delivers around three petabytes of storage dedicated to digital forensics. This provides the scalability and performance needed to manage large, rapidly growing datasets while supporting secure, efficient long-term operations.
By consolidating monitoring, administration, and auditing into a single platform, West Midlands Police gained greater visibility across its storage environment, simplified infrastructure management, and strengthened compliance with MoPI and broader evidential data protection requirements.
By adopting Synology’s integrated platform, West Midlands Police eliminated ongoing software licensing costs, significantly reducing long-term expenditure while simplifying system management. The new infrastructure supports continuous data growth, enabling the Digital Forensics unit to process and store large volumes of evidence.
With full control over its data and built-in auditing and management tools, West Midlands Police is well placed to meet ISO 17025:2017 and forensic regulatory requirements.
John Price, Detective Sergeant at West Midlands Police commented:
“Within West Midlands Police Digital Forensics, we have been utilising Synology systems for over the last 5 years. We have found that using Synology systems has not been overly complex to install and scale out over this time. These time savings have enabled us to focus on our critical mission of protecting our communities from harm”
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