A quantum leap in collaboration between the 43 police
forces in England and Wales is set to take effect, with all forces
now signed up to the new national police IT strategy, Ailsa Beaton,
Metropolitan Police CIO and one of the strategy's chief architects,
has told Computer Weekly.
The Information Systems Strategy for the Police Service (ISS4PS)
was launched last month to address concerns - raised after the
investigation into the Soham murders - that police IT was too
fractured to fight cross-border crime effectively. The ISS4PS will
be managed by the new National Policing Improvement Agency.
"Because we have got people's buy-in to this common way forward,
and because it is very much the raison d'etre of the National
Policing Improvement Agency, there is no other game in town," said
Beaton. "We are signed up to do it."
The increased terrorist threat has made the need to collaborate
even more urgent, she said, making senior police officers
increasingly aware of the need to create common processes between
police forces that can be supported by national computer
systems.
"There is absolutely a need to work together against terrorism,"
said Beaton. "If you look at the recent incidents, they have not
just happened in one place but have happened all over, so we must
work together. And that includes doing some things in the same way,
so that when police officers go from place A to place B they have a
clearer understanding of what they should be doing when they get
there."
However, IT professionals in the police service will need to
balance the needs of a national IT strategy with local
requirements. They will have to negotiate with the National
Policing Improvement Agency to get approval for systems that do not
comply with national standards.
Beaton said the agenda set by government CIO John Suffolk to
improve professionalism in public sector IT would be crucial in
helping IT managers balance competing national and local priorities
- and communicating their reasoning to the National Policing
Improvement Agency.
www.pito.org.uk
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/police-reform/policing-improvement-agency
www.bichardinquiry.org.uk
What is ISS4PS?
The Information Systems Strategy for the Police Service (ISS4PS)
is a joint initiative between The Home Office, the Police IT
Organisation, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the
Association of Police Associations. It will be managed by the
National Policing Improvement Agency, a new Home Office body that
will have mandatory powers from April next year, when it takes over
from the Police IT Organisation.