D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) and North Wales Police (NWP) have announced the completion of a joint proof-of-technology project that used a hybrid-quantum application to optimize the placement of police vehicles for emergency response. The project, which leverages a hybrid-quantum solver from D-Wave’s Leap™ quantum cloud service, delivered a solution that reduced police vehicle coordination time from four months to four minutes.
The application, which was used to optimize “forward deployment,” or the strategic positioning of officers in high-risk areas, is reported to have cut the average incident response time by nearly 50%. The test also demonstrated that NWP could respond to at least 90% of incidents within their target response time, representing a 10% increase over their classical solution.
The project was supported by a grant from the Test and Learn Fund that NWP secured from the UK Policing’s National Science and Innovation Board. The project has been recognized as being of national cross-governmental interest for future development and deployment. Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, noted that hybrid-quantum computing is showing real-world potential across private and public sectors, and the application could be scaled nationally to reduce response times, costs, and a carbon footprint.
Read the full announcement here.
September 30, 2025
