Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[Techie1 + 2,024]

The majority of the budget is spent on supporting outdated systems - according to report.

Forces need to stop wasting their budgets on outdated computer systems and invest in new technology.

A new report by think tank The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says many police hours are wasted carrying out basic data management tasks, due to severe deficiencies in the forces’ digital infrastructure.

It highlights how the majority of police IT budgets are spent supporting old systems, with little funding available to invest in new technology. 

The report, compiled after six months research, argues forces are unable to capitalise on the opportunities presented by advance technology, which has already revolutionised many other sectors.

RUSI research analyst Alexander Babuta said: “With police hours becoming an increasingly scarce resource, it is more important than ever that valuable time is not wasted carrying out routine administrative tasks.”

He added if the budget was spent on new technology the costs will be recovered quickly in the savings made to time.

The report also suggests forces should coordinate nationally to overcome challenges by unifying all police data.

Mr Babuta said new technology is gradually being introduced, however, they are incompatible on a national level.

"Digital infrastructure is compartmentalised because of the highly localised nature of policing procurement, resulting in poor data sharing and little coordination at the national level,” he added.

For example, Durham Constabulary uses a new system called the Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART).

The system classifies suspects at a low, medium or high risk of offending and has been tested by the force with 98% accuracy.

Mr Babuta, points out the system is significantly better at finding who is at greater risk of reoffending – better than intelligence based assessments.

However he stresses that officers’ professional judgement should not be replaced by this and “the idea would be to support officers and enable them to be more effective.”

However, Durham only uses local data for this – therefore if a person moves from one county to Durham, they won’t be on the system. If the database was unified they would have this access to this information.

“Some forces have started to address the problem locally, but there has been little progress at the national level. Only when a unified national infrastructure is in place for centrally managing all police data will forces be able to make effective use of big data technology,” he added.

Mr Babuta told Police Oracle unifying all databases will be difficult as there are 220, but suggested the databases could be combined and then put on a nationwide force search engine.

HMIC and Mr Babuta also make future recommendations of implementing Predictive Hotspot Mapping (PHM).

PHM can use past crime data to predict where crime could occur, as well as what type of offences may be committed.

HMIC teamed up last with the London School of Economics lasy year to build a picture of “predicted demand” on policing in the 181,000 census output areas.

The inspectorate warned forces must have a better grasp of what they are likely to face in the years to come as they deal with increasingly limited resources.

HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor said: “It’s just an enormously valuable instrument, which many of them do not have

"At a local level, the inspectors themselves know where the troubled families are; they know where habitual criminals live.

“But to have that at force level but also to be able to drill down to small units in a particular area; that is an enormously valuable tool.”

HMIC argued police forces need a more effective approach to prevent crime from happening, although it admits understanding future demand is not easy. 

The RUSI report concludes that introducing new tech is all well and good, but stresses that any investment will be wasted if officers are unable or unwilling to use the software and tools provided to them- therefore there should be sufficient training provided.

View on Police Oracle

[Ether + 1,395]

Hardly news, you only have to look at the current systems the entire government buy, they are 15 years out of date when they actually come in. 

Any PNC gurus out there?  Care to tell us what the age of that system is?

 

[HazRat 762]

PNC works. It's not pretty, but it works. I despair over the rest of the IT in my force.

[Ether + 1,395]

4 minutes ago, HazRat said:

PNC works. It's not pretty, but it works. I despair over the rest of the IT in my force.

Cant disagree, but in an age of joint and cohesive working is it still fit for purpose? 

[Indiana Jones + 1,082]

If forces are using PND on top of PNC then it does work. But not everyone does, or there's a data backlog.

[obsidian_eclipse + 1,202]

The problem is, they talk about having too many databases and systems but then suddenly wheel out another new one to showcase and give themselves a pat on the back. Usually in competition to another similar system neighbouring but one force has just implemented after tendering out contracts to come up with something. So now you have 2 forces using different systems with one caught in the middle. Then each side bemoaning the hundreds of databases which can't be easily unified..

PNC works because it's 'national'. It's the same up here as it is down there. You can put your own front end on it easily if you wish to have fancy graphics or implementation into other systems. It's marvelous!

Instead of having multitudes of forces doing things a multitude of way. Have national computer systems. How many more times has this been said?

[Techie1 + 2,024]

I presume the Police ICT company will sort all this out, right? 

[BlueBob + 692]

IT is rather like the vehicle fleet - its fickle, everyone wants the same thing but dressed slightly differently with a bit more or less space, weight, CC, CO2, needs vary between mass use of everyone and small scale specific needs and the most common part is that in reality they are past their best by date within 2-4 years of purchase or in need of some serious updating.  
Perhaps one problem IT creates for users over vehicles is that everyone, yes everyone wants to tweak it slight as we all think we know how to get the best from it, even if its a change of screen saver or font style.

[Beaker 817]

49 minutes ago, BlueBob said:

Perhaps one problem IT creates for users over vehicles is that everyone, yes everyone wants to tweak it slight as we all think we know how to get the best from it, even if its a change of screen saver or font style.

One of the best things I was ever involved it was taking the Windows Interface away from end users at a Large Financial Institution.  We left them with a selection of buttons, and a nice corporate wallpaper.  Support calls went through the floor. 

[HazRat 762]

The MPS had a PDA that did PNC, S&S, Voters, IMEI and FPN's. It worked. I see some forces have gone over to smart phones using software called Pronto that interfaces with a few more systems.  Now the MPS are rolling out tablets or laptops (depends on role). I'll keep an open mind, but I can't help thinking they'd have had this project wrapped up a while back if we'd gone down the Pronto route.

[beecart 1]

If forces are using PND on top of PNC then it does work. But not everyone does, or there's a data backlog.

PND is not user friendly and has many duplicates / separate records for the same subject. A national IT system like NICHE would be ideal.

[Hyphen + 693]

I've used NICHE in the past. Once I got used to it I didn't mind it to be honest and it did pretty much everything. It can also link to mobile devices. At least half of UK Police forces now use it so you would think it would be a natural option. Surely from there we could then have some sort t central servers like with PNC to have it as a national system.

Maybe that is a little too simple? 

[Burnsy2023 2,895]

26 minutes ago, beecart said:

PND is not user friendly and has many duplicates / separate records for the same subject. A national IT system like NICHE would be ideal.

 

Niche RMS also has federated system integration built in. Technically, it wouldn't be that difficult to integrate.

[Indiana Jones + 1,082]

1 hour ago, beecart said:

 

PND is not user friendly and has many duplicates / separate records for the same subject. A national IT system like NICHE would be ideal.

 

Record duplication is a risk in any DB. Niche is no different. Our Niche feeds PND directly AFAIK.

[BlueBob + 692]

6 hours ago, Burnsy2023 said:

Niche RMS also has federated system integration built in. Technically, it wouldn't be that difficult to integrate.

Oops, had to chuckle at the idea of integration, IT and police - in combination those decision makers can barely integrate milk, tea leaves and water!!!