Taking the heat off the beat
Taking the heat off the beat
The New South Wales Police has come in for some harsh criticism in the past over the way it manages and shares information. Rodney Appleyard finds out about the great strides the force has made in recent times in utilising technology to bring paper records under arrest, as well as how the force will use technology in the future to help fight crime.
The deficiencies of the existing ad hoc record keeping and intelligence management systems have long been apparent, and it is of concern that such conditions persist, despite many attempts at reform. The issue regarding information management within the service are complex and problematic. As far as the Commission can ascertain, the main problems are: The existence of a multitude of different types of information, the specific requirements for the management of which have not been properly defined."
That is an extract from the hard hitting 1997 Royal Commission report on information management processes within the NSW Police. In the intervening years since that report was issued, the force has undergone a major overhaul of its police information management processes.
It went on: "Albeit extremely over-simplistic, two major groupings exist which are 'intelligence'-information gained during investigations that has been analysed and refined, and 'records' which are created to document business activity, and can relate either to investigations, or to purely administrative matters such as disciplinary proceedings against officers."
The report also highlighted the fact that information existed in various formats, such as paper and electronic documents, without specific attention being paid to procedures to support the secure storage and retrieval requirements of each.
"The lack of consistent information management procedures exists throughout the State, the organisational structure of the Service having lent itself to an array of disparate 'information' producing units, each using its own terminology and procedures for information storage and use.
"A variety of computer systems, which exist in isolation and are not integrated with one another, result in the inability to take full advantage of criminal intelligence and other investigative and administrative records; and a lack of awareness of, commitment to, and training in, the importance of keeping clear and accurate records."
The Royal Commission suggested that drastic changes were needed, and drastic changes are what the NSW Police has made, with significant improvements having been made to the way it manages its documents and images as a result.
Although COPS (Computer Operational Policing System) was started in 1994, it did not reach its full potential straight away, as its modules were gradually released over a few years. Now the system is somewhere approaching the peak of its powers, the benefits are very apparent.
COPS is one of the key technological systems to have been developed within the NSW police since the Royal Commission was published. Other systems include TRIM, Livescan, Phototrac, ABRS (Automated Bail Reporting System), CIDS (Computerised Incident Despatch System) and eProcess Objects.
Prior to the introduction of COPS, users had to access many individual, disparate databases to get hold of critical information. These included the Central Names Index, the Crime Information and Intelligence System, the Integrated Licensing System, the Stolen Vehicles Index and the Roads and Traffic Authority's computer system.
COPS has integrated all of these systems, which were very often producing multiple results, by housing all of their information under the one linked system.
It allows enquiries to be made on names, addresses, vehicles, organisations, animals and objects to ascertain important and relevant information.
Individuals are randomly audited, to make sure they respect the records keeping practices properly. A maximum two years imprisonment and a fine of $50,000, or both, can be given to any enquiries which are not genuine.
The NSW Police has faced many problems in managing all of its records, mainly because of the sheer size of the organisation. It is a huge operation, with 17,000 employees, including more than 13,300 police officers employed across 460 operational police stations, including specialist units such as the Forensic Services Group and crime agencies.
This makes it one of the largest police forces in the English-speaking world.COPS has faced this challenge head on, and currently records 1.68 million incidents, processes 139,000 charges, 147,000 custody records and 210,000 intelligence reports each year. It is used by every police officer and civilian employee of the force in every station, at every local area command and within every specialist unit in New South Wales.
Reports by the Bureau of Crime Stats and Information revealed that between 1997-1999, COPS helped to reduce break and enter crime by 11 percent and motor vehicle theft by 15 percent.
Heinrich de Nysschen, a senior security consultant, who has had many years of experience in law enforcement, including policing with the South African Police, liaison with law enforcement in Australia, providing senior consultation for multinational clients in the security sector and helping them with their IT services, says that digitisation has made a significant difference to modern policing.
"Digitisation has made a big difference to tackling crime effectively within modern police forces. It has allowed policing to be more efficient and has provided quicker response times. Better processing means that resources get used more efficiently in a proactive manner to reduce crime rates.
"Modern police services that operate with local command areas spread across multiple regions are provided with ongoing reports of crime stats in each area. So digitised police systems do not just allow this information to be processed better, but also help with the management of this information, in terms of producing crime trends and providing statistics. This is a great operational tool because it enables all aspects of the police structure to be managed efficiently, and crime statistics to be analysed effectively in different locations."
COPS was introduced into the NSW Police in particular at a critical time, when the police in Australia needed to make a full transition to digital technology to help it combat increasingly sophisticated crimes.
Tony Rooke, the chief information officer at the NSW Police, admits that the force is going through a quiet revolution at the moment, and COPS has been a big part of this transition into smarter, intelligence led policing.
"The more police interact with computers, the better we become at dealing with information and dealing with crimes more easily. Every decision a police officer makes is based on information, so having it to hand quicker at the right time will obviously help us to make better decisions.
"All of the databases are currently well integrated at the moment through the COPS system, which means that all of the routines done by police officers are logged into the system, recorded and are visible for viewing by many other important people in the force. This means that information is not lost and can be called upon to help solve important crimes. We have been one of the leading forces in Australia in terms of using this technology to underpin our success."
The changing face of the force
De Nysschen points to two major trends, both here in Australia and in the wider world, which have really impacted on the way policing in Australia has changed so much in the last 10 years-trends which have had a direct effect on why information management has become so critical and why effective management of documentation is now so significant.
"Initially there was a focus on community policing and setting up community police structures to enable good communication between police services and the community and more responsive policing. Then, the need for improved crime intelligence and the availability of resources to develop intelligence driven policing increased heavily, offering an alternative way to improve the standard and delivery of police services."De Nysschen says that accessible police resources increased because of the realisation that society was rapidly changing and becoming increasingly technology driven. Crime trends and the types of crimes were changing too, along with the expectations of the public. This led the police taking steps to adjust, adapt and meet the evolving needs, challenges and requirement of the modern society.
"There has been constant change, and the police have had to keep up with the rest of the world. A big part of that involves managing the information flow required to successfully tackle crime and the perceived risks of more sophisticated crimes too. Australia also works with other countries to share cross-border intelligence to solve these crimes and deliver more effective outcomes. Technology is being used to collect large amounts of information and to process it quickly to prove without a shadow of a doubt that a crime has been committed.
"It also helps to make the judicial process become more balanced and critical by allowing briefs to be collated effectively and information to be investigated properly" He adds that modern digitised police systems make it easier to calculate very complex information and present it as simple analysis for officers that need to keep track of crime patterns across different geographical regions, all from a central portal.
COPS 2-the sequel
The Mainframe Replacement Program (formerly known as COPS 2) is now in the process of being rolled out in NSW and this system is expected to eventually allow the police to deal with crimes on the street with the use of PDAs.
The Minister for Police, John Watkins, told Parliament in October, 2003 that COPS 2 is the biggest business and technology initiative ever undertaken by NSW Police, and the user friendliness of the system will be one of the overwhelming improvements:
"The Government has provided $58.4 million in funding for stage one of COPS 2 [now the Mainframe Replacement Program]. This funding will be provided to replace and upgrade the key elements of the force's technical infrastructure. It will enhance our networks across the State, enhance the personal computer, servers and mainframe capabilities, boost the security of the system and disaster recovery and provide a new email system. Policing requires accurate data and efficient communication, and that is what we will achieve with this major IT investment. Police speak of how cumbersome data entry and data searches can be under the current system.
"This is why this IT upgrade will improve the accuracy of suspect and vehicle identification; improve availability and accuracy of location details, including global positioning system co-ordinates; enable outside agencies, such as the Division of Analytical Laboratories, to enter investigation data directly into the system; enable connection to a range of mobile devices, including the ability to capture audio, photographs and even fingerprints in the field; and reduce the need for police to return to the station by enabling them to enter and upload data in the field."
Watkins expects the Mainframe Replacement Program to provide a more efficient, consistent and streamlined user interface for all police computer systems. It will also improve data collection and reduce the amount of time that police spend entering data. "It is in these areas", he adds "that the real benefits of COPS 2 will be obvious. In the area of charge processing alone it is estimated that COPS 2 will cut data entry time by up to 50 percent, or by an estimated 139,000 hours a day."
Rooke says force is excited about using more mobile devices and multi-media technology to help make it easier for them to fight crime.
"This program will allow us to catch more criminals because we will be able to make better decisions and target crimes with intelligence led policing. This should also improve the community perception of how the police are fighting crime.
"The initial $58.4 million provided by the government will pay for the technical infrastructure and will allow us to lay down the foundations for setting up the operating systems securely. We expect to receive more funding from the Treasury early next year so that we can start building the new solution fully. We shall release a tender soon and assess whether the solutions offered by companies in the market meet our requirements."
Fighting crime without wires
De Nysschen has faith that the idea behind future systems and the further provision of hand-held devices like PDAs should allow even quicker responses to crimes, and he thinks that digitisation on the hoof could cut down on a number of bureaucratic, paper-based steps which would keep the police out of the office and on the streets, where they need to be to battle crimes more effectively.
"For example, a police officer could pull over a potential offender and use a wireless device connected to the police operational management system to check if the picture on that person's driving licence matches up with the picture on the traffic database, which could be integrated into a future system. The police officer could also check their biometric details on the wireless device by getting them to also run their fingerprints over a scanner on the PDA."
The NSW Police has two biometric technology programs in action at the moment, Livescan and PhotoTrac, which could provide the fingerprinting and imaging information used on each PDA. The Livescan digital fingerprinting machines use lasers to scan 100 percent perfect prints so that they can be matched against the database in minutes to reveal false identities, criminal histories and risks.
Under the PhotoTrac scheme, digital images are captured of criminals on the streets from the surveillance tapes at banks, hotels, petrol stations, and the like. These pictures are automatically loaded into a police intranet so that they can be matched against images of known offenders.
De Nysschen adds: "Should this technology be used at a PDA level, it could be worn on the hip and this information could connect to the network in the car via wireless technology. It could also reduce the paperwork but still process critical information. This level of technology is on a par with international trends, such as those found in the UK and the US. Australian police are very good at keeping up with modern trends and technologies, and we now have the opportunity to use technology to be leaders in the field."
Jeff Vining, the research vice president of Gartner in the US, offers an insight into how these future plans for Australia are currently working in action in the United States:"In the U.S., digital records management systems have proved to be well worth the investment. 911 emergency calls can now be directed to specific locations; GIS geo-spatial technologies enable crime mapping and location capabilities; digital records management systems can be used by more than a single agency to allow better information sharing and timeliness."
He adds that modern record-keeping practices have led to better storage; improved chain of custody procedures; and convenient ways for data to be shared, reviewed, manipulated by defined users, or transferred to another medium.
"For example, in-car digital video cameras were too bulky and too expensive and the storage for VHS was a huge burden but once police agencies switched to wireless connections and digital recording, the boom took off because it offered better images which could be manipulated or searched easier with less tampering to the digital records.
"In the U.S., most, if not all police agencies have turned now to more digital services and less paper reporting, which are in the form of combined Computer Aided Dispatch/Record Management Systems with 911/autolocate functions courtesy of Geographic Information Systems and the advancement of mobile data communications. For example, when an incident is called into the Central Dispatch centre, an automated record is generated into a template form that all relevant criminal justice agencies can use (police, criminal analysts, courts, jails, and probation) which flows through the entire process and is transferred to a records management database for use by criminal analysts.
"Thus, officers can make automated inquiries into these criminal databases while on patrol to enhance productivity. Likewise, these wireless connections are being used by State Troops, in the State of Massachusetts, during searches. It is commercially provided for a fee via a Blackberry Device."
The success story in the U.S. bodes well for NSW Police's technological vision, with the use of PDAs, biometrics, imaging and other technology linked up to a central database for the purpose of tackling crimes on the spot.
Just how sophisticated the technology used to combat crime can get is virtually limitless. As statistics are already showing, the use of such technology is already having a large impact on reducing crime. So as time goes on, it seems that the NSW police, and police forces around the rest of Australia will be able to escape the mountains of paperwork they are renowned for being buried under in the office and will spend more time on the streets solving crimes, exactly where we all want them to be.
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