Police launch national data sharing portal

Impact Nominal Index uses Criminal Justice Extranet to allow national information searches

The Home Office has launched the first national police system developed to address concerns about lack of intelligence sharing between forces.

The Impact Nominal Index (INI) uses the secure Criminal Justice Extranet to allow police child abuse units to check if information on a suspect is held by other police forces anywhere else in the country.

The INI is an interim measure and will ultimately be replaced by the Impact programme’s Cross Region Information Sharing Project (Crisp), in line with the recommendations of the Bichard Inquiry into the Soham murders. Under Crisp, officers will be able to access data automatically, whereas the INI only provides a list of locations where information is held.

‘The INI is the first step in our plans to provide a national information sharing capability which will prevent criminals from escaping detection simply by crossing force boundaries,’ said police minister Hazel Blears.

But Rick Naylor, president of the Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales, says the INI is extremely restricted.

‘It is only the very, very first step in creating a national intelligence system,’ he said.