HELPING the police with their inquiries it certainly isn’t. Not yet, anyway.
Computing (Jan 26) reports that the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS) won’t be able to connect to the Police National Computer (PNC)even when it’s finally up and running in April. This lack of a link means that officers won’t be able to get automatic alerts about gun licence holders acting suspiciously from forces in other parts of the country.
Lord Marlesford says that the situation is “deplorable and a major failure”. He tells the magazine: “What has happened with the national firearms system suggests a lack of computer sophistication within the Government, and brings into question its ability to deliver ID cards.”
In a separate comment piece, the magazine says that the system is “heading for a place in history as one of the more embarrassing government IT projects . . . the system is intended to provide police forces across England and Wales with a searchable register of all firearms certificate-holders, accessible via the PNC.” However, it says, it has been beset by a range of difficulties. But the system should not be this complicated, the editorial continues. After all, it will hold far fewer records than other databases, such as the vehicle licensing system.
“If the issues with the NFLMS are purely technical — and not political, as some critics have suggested — it does not bode well for future government IT projects. It seems preposterous that it could take nine years to install what is essentially a simple records database.”
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Fortunately not all crime-prevention software news is gloomy. Police Review (Jan 27) says that forces in Manchester and Northern Ireland are ahead of the game when it comes to collecting and analysing intelligence. Analysts there use special software to collate information from a number of public services organisations on to a central database. Additionally, Manchester uses a computer programme that commercial firms use to predict business trends.
www.pito.org.uk