Our new Police and Crime Commissioner’s plans

… “I would really like to invest in the technology that our police officers need,” she said. “The systems they currently have to support them while they are out on the streets are so ineffective.

“The more police officers that can be out on the streets rather than sat in the station the better. …

… “I would also like there to be more online opportunities for people to be able to have a conversation online with a police officer, said Ms Hernandez.” …

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/New-crime-czar-Devon-Cornwall-wants-invest-police/story-29246196-detail/story.html

Oh no … Owl can see it now …

…Press 1 for burglary
…Press 2 for assault …

…. or fill in our online form that will only take you long enough to lose the will to live.

And, if our all our police officers are out on the beat, who will be doing the “Live Chat” service online?

Maybe a call centre in India!

2 thoughts on “Our new Police and Crime Commissioner’s plans”

As a highly experienced IT professional, I would say that Hernandez is right in theory but completely clueless in practice. If she had any real life experience of the police service or of complex IT (and let’s not forget that other PCC candidates had both), she would never make such a statement.

Yes – the police administrative systems are not joined up and consequently a large percentage of man hours are wasted doing administration. And yes – better technology would definitely help keep police officers on the street rather than doing admin.

But unfortunately, she is completely clueless about the complexities of developing and implementing new systems – and of the costs of doing this that are so large that no single police service like D&CP could possibly afford.

Several governments have spent several deades trying to revamp police computer systems. In 1974 the Police Information Systems Unit (PISU) started delivering centralised national police systems; this then became the Police IT Organisation (PITO) which in 2007 then became the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) before being effectively disbanded in 2011/2012. If PISU/PITO/NPIA cannot successfully deliver new systems for UK police forces as a whole over several decades, what hope does Hernandez have to achieve this by herself for just D&CP? Answer: None. (See also similar attempts to revamp NHS IT which have cost UK taxpayers £BILLIONS and delivered nothing.)

If the SW electorate had elected someone with real knowledge and experience of policing, rather than a party hack with no relevant experience and questionable integrity, then maybe we might be hearing more intelligent and realistic sound-bites from our new PCC.

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