The government could compel police forces to buy technology through national framework agreements.
A white paper on policing released on Wednesday said that at least £400m will be saved on police procurement including IT in the next Parliament, but that police forces will be compelled to use nationally agreed Information Systems Improvement Strategy (Isis) frameworks where necessary.
The government will also force police authorities to publish local value-for-money statements as part of their policing plans for 2010-11, according to the paper, entitled Protecting the public: supporting the police to succeed.
The document promises further use of national approaches to shared procurement and highlights existing targets in this area.
These include a 2011 target for the national procurement of BlackBerrys and mobile phones, and 2013 for police to buy "continuing capability" for identification systems for fingerprints, palm prints and other marks.
Police forces currently have a legacy of different IT systems so that information services for operational officers are not always used to best effect, according to the paper. It said that the Isis will improve this by ensuring that spending contributes to the convergence of police IT, a reduction in cost and the improvement of services.
On e-forensics, which involves gathering evidence from electronic equipment such as mobile telephones, the document said the police service must keep pace with technological changes. By April 2012, the first national e-forensics framework will be in place, which it said "will offer savings over existing individual force arrangements, though it is too early to quantify them".
Home secretary Alan Johnson said: "The white paper sets out a wide-ranging programme to drive national and regional procurement, reduce overheads, improve benchmarking information and strengthen commitment to collaboration between forces and voluntary mergers where appropriate."
Responding to the paper, Paul McKeever, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "Substantial savings can be made by centralising procurement and this is an issue the Police Federation has been raising with government for some time."
