03 February 2012
Kent Police has signed up to the largest-ever collaborative police IT project which will help officers identify criminals more quickly and cut crime.
The new IT system, known as Project Athena, will save police forces time and money, helping to improve the service they provide to the public. The project is being delivered by Northgate Public Services and is due to be fully implemented towards the end of 2012.
In line with recommendations of the 2004 Bichard Inquiry, the new system will let each force share a much wider set of operational police data with officers and staff in other forces.
Historically, day-to-day police information has been shared between local forces upon request, which is both time-consuming and results in delays.
Chief Constable Ian Learmonth said: 'Project Athena will reduce bureaucracy, make sure our systems are joined-up at a local and national level and free up police officer time through better information sharing. Effective IT systems have never been more important in policing and I want Kent Police to continue to be at the forefront of innovation. Ultimately this is about improving the service to the public.'
Athena, which is supported by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) as part of the national strategy for police IT (ISIS), will be a single IT system managing police investigations, intelligence and defendants (both custody and case preparation) across all member forces, giving frontline police officers and staff in those forces access to more detailed and up-to-date information, while reducing bureaucracy.
Ann Barnes, Chair of Kent Police Authority, said: ‘I’m absolutely delighted to sign the agreement today. I’m particularly proud that our Kent and Essex IT Director spearheaded this initiative. The Athena project is value for money for the taxpayers of the county and working together is basic housekeeping. The Authority has driven collaboration for a number years and it’s fantastic to be part of this IT milestone.’
The seven early adopters of the national framework agreement are Kent, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Athena will replace up to ten existing police IT systems in each force, all of which cost money to maintain and upgrade and will eventually require replacing. The money the ‘early adopters’ are spending will be significantly less than that they would have to spend on replacing each individual existing IT system.
The agreement can be used by any other police authority or law enforcement agency in the UK – several others have already expressed an interest, further reducing opportunities for criminals to operate across geographic boundaries.
The system will be managed centrally, in partnership with Northgate, helping to save forces money by reducing the need for ongoing management of multiple IT systems.
Officers and staff at each phase of the criminal justice process – from report to court – will be able to view all records for the suspect from each member force and from all other stages of the process. This will mean that a suspect arrested for crimes committed in any of the Athena force areas can be dealt with for all offences in one custody suite without the need for the suspect to be transferred between each force and processed for crimes committed exclusively in that force area.
Time will be saved after a suspect is arrested, as those officers working in custody and preparing cases will automatically have access to all the intelligence already held about a suspect.