Police authorities have developed an information sharing system that will provide the mechanism for the Neighbourhood Policing plan being rolled out nationally by all forces.
The Partnership Intelligence system, based on technology from supplier Memex, will pool information to be accessed by the various agencies that work with the police, such as social services, street wardens and community support officers.
Les Kominiak, former Nottinghamshire police chief and author of a white paper on Partnership Intelligence, says the police will encourage different organisations to use the system.
‘It is about pooling information and moving in the direction advocated by the National Community Safety Plan to get partners working more closely with the police,’ he said.
‘Partners are all organisations that contribute to helping try to reduce crime and disorder, and the public are being encouraged by the Home Office to take an active part to help local authorities.
‘Members of the public will feed in to the system by a variety of means, by talking to police officers, street wardens, community support officers, and case workers from social services. Once that data is captured, a tool such as Memex can then access it in a secure auditable way.’
The National Community Safety Plan (NCSP), introduced by the government last year, outlines a new approach to keeping local areas safe.
When announcing the plan last year, then-police minister Hazel Blears said: ‘The NCSP is not limited to the work of the police. They alone cannot provide for all our safety and security. It is communities themselves that lie at the heart of the plan. We need them to identify the community safety priorities for their neighbourhoods and work with the key agencies at local level to make sure they are tackled responsibly and effectively.’
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