English Ministry of Defence unifies police records

By EgovAsia Editors | Jul 13, 2010

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England's Ministry of Defence has worked with six constabularies to unify police records into one database.  Using Infoshare, police in Essex, Cambridge, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire can create a ‘single best person’ view of all records to help improve public safety.

Prior to the data and information management project, each constabulary had multiple disparate data systems housing information on known criminals, crime recordings, intelligence, domestic violence and child protection.  These data silos could not be cross-referenced and often contained an unknown quantity of duplicate or inaccurate information.

Infoshare’s ClearCore Enterprise Data Quality Suite enables police forces to bring together all existing data, regardless of systems, format, language or source.  The data is then automatically cleansed, analyzed, compared and enriched to create evidence-driven matches rather than using probability comparison.  This improves the levels of accuracy and enables the police to see all related information and to use this data to reduce crime.

“We began to look into a unified database as part of the outcome from the Bichard Enquiry which, together with MoPI, aimed to assess and improve the effectiveness of the police intelligence-based record keeping,” explained Chief Inspector Andy Gratrix, Chief Information Officer, Cambridge Constabulary, who led the initiative.  “By combining the forces of six constabularies, we could not only deliver economies of scale but we could create a highly accurate and effective system that would ultimately help us better protect the public”.