An independent review has depicted the Police IT
Organisation (Pito) as largely dysfunctional and set up on the
basis of offering national systems that some police forces perceive
as delayed, expensive and technically backward.
The report said the relationship between Pito and the police
forces it serves has irretrievably broken down. A satisfaction
survey of the organisation's customers, local police forces,
produced the most negative results ever experienced by those who
conducted the survey.
Although it praised some of Pito's successes, the report is an
indictment of an organisation, with 700 staff, that has cost and
spent more than £800m on IT since it was formally set up in
1998.
It also found a consensus that having separate IT departments in
each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales was
"unsustainable". It suggested a "consensual and evolutionary
strategy that leads to their rationalisation". More than 3,700
people are employed in IT across the forces and the total spend
among forces is about £750m a year.
The review, led by former BOC Group chief executive Robert
McFarland, was written before the general election but was not
published until last week.
It said the present structure and organisation of police IT in
general "lacks clear definition or purpose, results in confused
lines of responsibility and is almost certainly poor value for
money".
Pito's budget in 2003/04 was £250m. In 2004/05 the total figure
was expected to rise to about £345m. Its staff numbers jumped from
474 in 2003/04 to an estimated 693 in 2004/05.
The organisation was set up mainly to deliver a national
strategy, including major systems, to help the police collect and
store intelligence, reduce the paperwork involved in arresting
people, preparing cases for court and command and control.
It has delivered the Airwave police radio and communications
system and the Nafis fingerprinting system, and is partly
responsible for the Police National Computer.
But the report said, "Around 80% of the police expenditure on IT
is within forces. Pito has been unable to influence this to any
significant degree. Thus beyond the large projects, the success of
which has to say the least been mixed, Pito's contribution to
police ICT has been marginal."
It added, "[Pito management] regard the governance system under
which they operate as unnecessarily bureaucratic, wasteful and
demoralising." These views are shared by all stakeholders,
including police IT directors.
The report recommended that the organisation be absorbed into a
new National Police Improvement Agency.