The Police Portal (www.police.uk) has been operational for three years and is a valuable tool for police forces in the reduction and prevention of crime, as well as improving communication between the public and police, and between individual police forces. It offers the public a number of services, including the ability to report non-emergency crime. Portal visitors can access current police appeals for information, view advisory notices, seek out the latest police service news and access links to other official police force sites. The portal will automatically prioritise information received from the public, ensuring the appropriate police force is provided with important and relevant information in a timely manner.
Tom McArthur, Director of Operational Services at PITO, said: “This contract award will enable the continued development and expansion of online police services in the UK. The Police Portal plays a pivotal role supporting police forces in disseminating public information and ensuring public safety”.
Alan Stanmore, Commercial Director at PITO, added: “QinetiQ was awarded the contract as a result of a competitive tender process and has an excellent track record of managing and hosting complex and secure web services for central government and agencies. PITO and QinetiQ have an established relationship having worked together to deliver a variety of services as part of PITO’s drive toward modernising UK policing”.
Duncan Hine, Managing Director of QinetiQ’s Trusted Information Management Division, commented: “The portal has an absolute requirement to be robust, secure, highly available, flexible and future-proofed. QinetiQ has a proven track record of providing secure web based applications, databases and networks that form part of the UK critical national infrastructure and that meet all of these tough demands. We look forward to working with PITO to deliver the benefits that will come with this improved service to both their customers in the police forces and the general public.”
QinetiQ will now begin the design and build of the replacement portal, which is expected to launch in April 2006 and will offer new functionality and additional public services. These include digital mapping to support crime reporting, greater accessibility through voice services for users with impaired sight and increased message broadcasting options (including e-mail, SMS and voice) that enable the police to rapidly disseminate advice to the public. The portal will be load balanced across two separate secure sites in order to ensure greater robustness and resilience.
The Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) provides information technology and communications systems and services to the police and other criminal justice organisations in the UK. PITO is a non-departmental government body. PITO is overseen by a board that draws its members from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the police authorities, the Home Office and the Scottish Executive. The board also has independent members.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 29.09.2005
