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Empowering local communities
John Low, business development director of Memex Technology, discusses Neighbourhood Policing and the Partnership Intelligence concept...
The Neighbourhood Policing model, currently being rolled out nationally by all police forces in the UK, is a tried and tested model for community policing that has been operating successfully in the US for many years. It has introduced a method of working which brings the police, the community and partners (such as social services, street wardens and community support officers) together to collectively solve local problems of crime, disorder and anti social behaviour. It also acts to empower local people and local service providers and integrate them into National Intelligence Model (NIM) disciplines of working.
‘Partnership Intelligence’ is a proposed concept to provide the mechanism behind neighbourhood policing, allowing for the most effective multi-agency response to community crime and bringing together all known information about problems and people. While the concept is not new, the difficulty Westminster and police forces have faced in developing a working model is how to bring all the information together into one system. A system that will provide a secure and easily searchable partnership intelligence structure, with the capability to service the growing demands of neighbourhood policing and partnership tasking.
what does neighbourhood policing require?
Fundamentally, neighbourhood policing allows the police service to work directly with local communities in identifying the problems that are most important to them. It establishes a structure for working with other agencies and the public to solve problems of crime, whilst fostering understanding and education to tackle community safety issues.
This requires dedicated police staff for each neighbourhood, an agreed community engagement model for generating priorities and approving choices, and the selection and development of community teams with the necessary skills to instil public confidence. Local systems need to be in place to provide protocols for the exchange of information and for joint operating procedures, and local intelligence cells, within the discipline of NIM, must maintain ‘problem profiles’ and provide analytical support.
In tackling community problems, a methodology applied to neighbourhood policing in the US called Problem Oriented Policing (POP) is also being adopted in the UK. Rather than simply responding to individual incidents, it is about identifying and solving underlying problems within communities. Many police forces and other organisations have adopted a systematic way of managing crime in this way with a process called SARA:
Scanning – identifying problems using local knowledge, data and electronic maps
Analysis – using information technology and intuitive enquiry to dig deeper into problems’ characteristics and identify underlying causes
Response – working with the community and partners to develop a local solution
Assessment – checking to see if the solution worked and what can be learned
information sharing
While a great deal of progress is being made with the implementation of neighbourhood policing across the UK, very few forces have the mechanisms in place for effective information sharing between key partners.
Some areas have developed systems for de-personalised information sharing where partner agencies overlay a variety of information and generate maps to provide geographic profiles. However, these systems serve more as medium to long term planning tools and not something that can help with current problems the police and partner agencies are trying to solve.
Personal data is vital in enabling intelligence analysts to conduct accurate and effective interpretation of events. Yet the sharing of personal information has always been a sensitive issue, the legalities and protocols of which still seem to be unclear. Much of the concern has been about the accuracy of data and the security of the information being shared, and while there are many examples of information sharing protocols and available guidelines, each partnership is responsible for developing its own protocol.
Problem solving relies heavily on information sharing and the detailed analysis of accurate data. Westminster has operated a system of collocated intelligence operatives for a number of years, and Nottinghamshire and the SHERWOOD project have had a similar facility with a multi-agency intelligence function. However, neither has been able to bring all the information together into one system.
proposed IT solution
The difficulty is the huge amount of work, processes and teams involved in neighbourhood policing and the resulting mass of information. It is also very costly to implement a brand new centralised IT system spanning each partner as this involves a massive data transfer process from legacy systems. So what’s the solution?
Memex has developed an extremely powerful free text search tool with the in-built security and audit function of an intelligence system. This can now provide the means to join together partnership data in a way that will provide a secure and easily searchable partnership intelligence structure.
Intelligence Analyst is a desktop application designed to allow users to retrieve data simultaneously from a variety of databases through a single query interface, analyse the information as a single set of data, and easily collect information of interest to cases. Its uniqueness lies in its ability to integrate with existing environments and utilise existing databases, which benefits users by giving them a unified view of intelligence.
The advantages of this type of solution are enormous:
The format of the originating database is not important; Memex can handle any form of electronic data
The location of the database is irrelevant
All data sources can be searched simultaneously from the one view
Logical query capabilities enable analysts to create effective search queries without the need to learn complex query languages
Intelligence Analyst provides a suite of data mining tools and the ability to export data into a wide range of reporting and analytical tools
Intelligence Analyst also offers enhanced search features when utilising another core component called the Intelligence Engine, which handles data in its natural format without having to force-fit data into prescribed structures. Virtually any information can be searched upon, including: scanned information such as accident reports and witness statements, information from legacy databases, electronic data and textual information such as email. For the user, information becomes available faster, saving a great amount of time and energy and producing more effective intelligence.
The future for Partnership Intelligence
Partnership Intelligence can provide the mechanism required to connect partners and allow neighbourhood policing to effectively challenge local crime and disorder, but we need an equally effective IT structure to make this happen.
The Government is serious about bringing in systems to minimise the risk of poor information sharing to prevent tragedies like the Soham murders with the IMPACT programme. A joined up approach is also vital in solving neighbourhood crimes. Neighbourhood policing is high on the agenda for many police forces and in fact West London Council recently announced plans to fund round the clock neighbourhood policing for residents in a high crime community.
Residents want a more visible, local uniformed presence 24-hours, 365 days a year just like in the US. Criminals don’t work in shift patterns like current neighbourhood policing teams. West London’s pilot approach is genuinely groundbreaking in the UK but this further highlights the need to get the IT structure in place that will help neighbourhood teams solve crime.
