The second phase of the police national data sharing programme will be in place by next summer, says the Home Office.
Procurement for the multimillion-pound Cross Region Information Sharing Project (Crisp), which will allow local police officers to search and extract information from forces anywhere in the country, started last week.
The software will link to eight systems including crime, child abuse and domestic violence, using common information formats implemented locally.
‘The aim is for Crisp to be implemented by the summer of 2007, giving each force the ability to search eight key business areas and access data that has reached a certain level of standardisation that police are working to,’ said a Home Office spokeswoman.
Crisp is the second stage of the Impact intelligence-sharing programme, developed following the 2004 Bichard Inquiry into the employment at a school of Soham murderer Ian Huntley despite a string of earlier sexual allegations against him.
Crisp is an interim step towards the Police National Database (PND) envisaged by Bichard.
The first stage – the Impact Nominal Index – went live last February and allows local police officers to find out if any other force is holding information on a particular person.
But the system is not sophisticated enough to provide access to actual data. Once Crisp is up and running, such information will be automatically accessible.
The full PND will build on locally-held Crisp data by adding sources such as the Police National Computer conviction information and the Violent and Sex Offender register.
‘All work on Crisp will follow directly onto PND,’ said the Home Office spokeswoman.
Bichard called the development of data sharing systems ‘a national priority’. But progress has been slow and the timetable for Crisp has already slipped by a year, says Rick Naylor, president of the Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales.
‘The Crisp procurement is in progress but it is incredibly slow bearing in mind that the Bichard Inquiry was two years ago,’ said Naylor. ‘This procurement is a significant milestone but we need to monitor the situation and see what it actually delivered in 12 months’ time.’
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