Police unveil IT plans to 2005

Video ID parades, palmprint technology and a new criminal justice extranet are at the heart of the Police IT Organisation's (Pito) plans for the next three years.

In its annual report, Pito chief executive Philip Webb said the organisation was "entering a period of significant re-evaluation and change. There are high expectations of what IT can deliver".

The organisation is looking to introduce technology to enable video identity parades by March 2003, and is to implement a £150m upgrade to the current National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (Nafis) to add palmprint identification to systems.

This database is used by all police forces in England and Wales and carries prints of convicted criminals and forensic data from crime scenes.

Webb said that the Criminal Justice Extranet (CJX) would connect all 43 police forces in England and Wales by March 2003. But it will be delivered three months later than originally expected, and at a cost of £2.1m.

The CJX will also link with Scottish forces, and other criminal justice organisations will join in the scheme under separate arrangements. The CJX will allow forces to send secure traffic without having to enter the public domain.

"The progressive roll-out of the Police National Network (PNN), which forms the basis of the CJX, underpins achievement of a joined-up criminal justice system," said Webb.

Pito said it had chalked up some successes over the last year, including the piloting of its digital radio network, Airwave, based on Tetra technology.

The organisation also hopes to introduce a mobile data system to complement this radio technology. Airwave is expected to be completely rolled out in England and Wales by 2004/05, with Scotland coming online a year later.

Nine police forces will pilot the technology, supplied by mobile network operator mmO2, by March 2003. The scheme is expected to cost over £28m.

It also said its roll-out of Holmes2 (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) to all police forces in England and Wales had been a success following its immediate application in a number of high-profile crimes and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September.

The system has been developed in conjunction with Unisys and allows police forces to collate and analyse large amounts of information that come into incident rooms following a major crime or incident.