Police National Database just launched

The National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) today launched the Police National Database in association with Logica after eight years of development.

The database, to be housed at the NPIA in the Home Office, will help police forces from different counties share intelligence when broader investigations are required.

These investigations are likely to be conducted in cases of serious crime, including terrorism and child abuse.

The database was recommended in an inquiry carried out by Sir Michael Bichard in 2004, which investigated failures in intelligence around the Soham murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells at the hands of Ian Huntley in 2002.

The project has cost £75m and has seen Logica act as director of a technology framework tasked with the design and build of the system. The contract will now run for seven years.

The database will be populated by data from up to 150 different systems based in police forces across the country.

The forces will choose which information to supply and the information will be made available in real time.

Craig Boundy, chief executive of Logica UK, said that the build was "slightly ahead of time and on budget".

The database build was led by Logica with contributions from IBM Initiate, Microsoft Fast, Oracle, Huntsman, Sunguard (Capita) and Northgate.

The database will also contain information from, and be made available to, the British Transport Police and the Scottish Police.

Boundy explained that the database observes six different security measures, including ID and Access Management and an ongoing audit.