Unisys has said that all UK police forces will be using the HOLMES2 investigation system from early next year.
All have renewed their contracts following a number of upgrades to the cloud based system, which the company said will provide for an increase in data sharing between forces. 42 of the 43 forces are now using system with the final force scheduled to go live early in 2020.
Otherwise known as the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, HOLMES2 has been in place since 2000, with the new software-as-a-service model having been rolled out since 2016.
Unisys said that running the systems from the cloud means it can be rapidly configured so multiple police forces share resources to support the lead force and begin messaging information relating to incidents.
It provides a real time live view of operations and is support by functions for tasking, alerting, reporting, messaging, analytics and document and records management.
Public submissions
New functions include the ability for the public to submit information, including photographs and videos, through the Police Major Incident Public Reporting Site. People are able to classify the information they submit, which improves the speed and quality of data.
In addition, police forces using the portal can create dedicated campaigns to focus on specific groups, such as those living within a certain radius of an incident or crime scene.
Sri Iver, public sector lead for Unisys in the UK, said: “Cloud technology is critical for UK policing to more quickly address the rapidly changing nature of crime while cutting costs across its operations.”
Image: Matty Ring, CC BY 2.0 through flickr
