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Lancashire police migrate case and custody data to Connect

26/09/16

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Constabulary becomes the first to use information platform independently of Athena records management system

Lancashire Constabulary has migrated seven years’ worth of case and custody records to the Connect platform, becoming the first police force in the UK to use it without the Athena records management system.

This follows the recent signing of a five-year contract to use the system, and has involved the transfer of more than 1 million legacy cases, 5 million case files and 10,000 live case files.

A spokesperson for Northgate Public Services, supplier of the Connect platform, said that while nine forces already use Connect with the Athena system, Lancashire is the first of three to use it as a standalone platform, with South Yorkshire and Humberside set to follow in the coming months.

Athena is also supplied by Northgate, and most police forces that use Connect do so with Athena.

Records plan

Lancashire Constabulary is planning to create a primary nominal record - a single person record with unique reference for use across the force – that will make it possible to have digital information from arrest through to a trial. This is part of its digital transformation plan.

The move followed a decision to look for a market offering for case files, in place of the earlier in-house system, in order to ensure the force met with the mandated standards.

Migration took nine months, and involved cleaning the source data and mapping it into a format compatible with the Connect platform’s POLE data standards.

Superintendent Richard Robertshaw (pictured), operational lead at Lancashire Constabulary, said: “The force has gone digital by default in terms of case files, with criminal justice becoming largely paperless overnight. In a very real way, officers on the front line can access information and provide accurate data in real time.

“We've taken the cloud version of the platform. This is one of the most important points for us, as it’s a secure environment and reduces the amount of support required for critical IT systems.

“The roadmap for the platform also enables our force to take all the data from the legacy systems so we no longer have to run them, further reducing our costs.”

The force has also signed up for Connect Crime and Intelligence modules which are due to go live in 2017.

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