Police National Statistics Database
Improving Analysis of Police Data
The Police National Statistics Database (PNSD), which provided improved access to crime and user satisfaction data from Police Forces in England and Wales, was 'highly commended" in the 'shared services' category of the prestigious Government Computing awards.
PNSD, launched in June 2008, was the
brainchild of the PNLD team and was developed by PDMS using our
FoundationsTMplatform. PDMS have been working with PNLD
as their IT partner on significant projects for a number of
years.
Previously, all of the police forces submitted monthly statistics spreadsheets to the UK Home Office, including data on crime and user satisfaction results, taken from surveys of victims of crimes including areas such as burglary and road traffic collisions. This data was then collated and published by the Home Office's crime statistics data base called iQuanta. However, this was in fixed pre-formatted PDF reports, making any additional or ad hoc further analysis difficult and time consuming.
The PNSD system allowed each force to upload a copy of its monthly and quarterly spreadsheets directly to the PNSD system, where it is validated and stored. Spreadsheets are processed, automatically, as they arrive. Police forces can then download any spreadsheet, or select specific aspects of the data, for analysis 'over time' and 'geographically'.
PNSD has greatly helped performance practitioners offering them both significant time savings in terms of data capture and also access to information that was previously unavailable without relying on goodwill from colleagues. The system delivered significant efficiency gains for forces and helped improve decision making.
"Comparing and contrasting statistics quickly - particularly with another comparable force - is a real boon," said Nigel Hughes, Head of the Police National Legal Database. "For example, information such as offences related to incidents of domestic violence can be assessed; it will facilitate the monitoring of the time and place of violent crime and track the success and customer satisfaction with police operations. The police use statistics about crime to help make sense of any trends and this will help them do that quickly and accurately. It frees them up to get on with the job of policing and gives them the opportunity to enhance future service delivery."
The PNSD project was one of three PDMS projects to be shortlisted for an e-Government National Award in 2008 in the category "Innovation in Strategy on a National Level". Find out more by reading the PNSD case study.
