UK to fix police ICT systems
Addressing the summer conference of the Association of Chief Police Officers, May said it was “absolutely clear” that the current system for police ICT was “broken”, stating that the new company would free chief constables from spending time on ICT, while giving them better systems.
Around £1.2 billion is currently spent on police ICT, with 5 000 staff working on more than 2 000 separate systems across 100 data centres, states ComputerWeekly.
May said she hopes to form the new company by spring 2012. “IT systems that require multiple keying of the very same information, are incompatible with systems doing the same basic job in neighbouring forces, or are even incompatible with other systems in their own force,” May said.
She said the new system would not be a repeat of the National Police Improvement Agency, “with all the same old mistakes and the same old problems repeated.”
The Guardian says, the new company will be responsible for negotiating and managing contracts worth many billions of pounds and this “must be done by hard-headed professionals who can take on some of the world's biggest companies on their own terms”, May said.
She said the company must have a culture that enables it to attract and retain skilled staff, and a commercial and efficient approach to save public money. In addition, it should exploit the purchasing power of all of England's 43 police forces.
Share