By Pamela Cook
The Annual Police ICT User Survey has highlighted the unacceptable lack of system integration in the police, with roughly half of respondents saying that as a result, they cannot trust the data they rely upon.
82% of the nearly 4,000 officers from 48 forces felt their forces systems were not well integrated, with one respondent expanding to say she must access up to 20 disparate internal and external databases as part of her job. Keeping data siloed in this manner doesn’t just harm the quality and reliability of the data kept within them, it means so much police time is wasted just trying to access the intelligence that should be available at their fingertips.
In 2018, there cannot be an excuse for this situation, when there are many proven solutions available out there. The business case for a single view of police data (with a single log in) has been proven time and again, and it is not expensive solution to give officers confidence about the data they are accessing and streamline how they access it. No new technology needs to be developed; it is already available and proven.
Indeed, we ourselves have worked with several forces who have fully integrated their systems; where all relevant, reliable, data is held in one place and where a single sign on is all that is required. The ROI at each stage has been evidenced and we’re now working with even more forces to do the same.
Unfortunately, politics, existing culture and legal barriers can all provide significant hurdles to implementing a solution to the problems uncovered in the police survey. However, with several forces embracing a more integrated data system and experiencing the wide-reaching benefits of doing so, these hurdles can be managed successfully.
If you want to find out more about our single-view software and how it can improve your data management, have a look at our ClearCore product page. Or, if you’d like a chat, email Richard Onslow our Sales Director.