Police National Database Joins Forces
“A strategic change in policing has taken place with the introduction of the PND. It is a prime example of the benefits of collaborative working between forces and ourselves and a trusted commercial
partner.” Nick Gargan NPIA chief constable and chief executive
About the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)
It is almost unheard of that a major national infrastructure project can be traced back to a single event but the Police National Database (PND) is one rare example.
The NPIA, as the main body providing nationwide services to support frontline policing, has led the delivery of what is now known as the PND. It is changing the way British police forces work.
The challenge
As an interim measure, an Impact Nominal Index (INI) was set up. This allowed police forces to see that information was held on an individual or event by another force or forces. But retrieving that information meant sending an e-mail or fax requesting details and the reply could take up to two weeks to arrive. The subsequent PND had to make access to the full original intelligence easy and fast.
Our answer
Logica and the NPIA worked with each force and agency to standardise its data, using a specially adapted program that automatically converts disparate methods of recording data into the single method
to be used by the PND. This has saved months of manual changes. The same program automatically converted new data into the format used by the PND. The program is helping to address some of the complex IT challenges which PND’s development and delivery has presented.
A Success Story
The PND closes gaps and enables the police to see the complete intelligence picture. Intelligence checks that were previously very difficult to carry out manually or that took up to two weeks via the stopgap INI system now take minutes. Depending on their access grade, 12,000 registered PND users can now directly make connections between suspects, events and locations.
Results followed within days of the system becoming operational. Examples include:
- A northern organised crime group found operating in the south
- New information about more than a third of missing sex offenders registered in the London area
- Information relating to one man’s child sex offences dating back seven years, which led to safeguarding action
- A major drugs supplier found to be operating across several police force areas
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