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Amazon could inspire police tracking of crimes

Andy Mitchell
Local Democracy Reporting Service
PA Media A woman with her hair pulled back into a ponytail sits at a desk with three screens and a keyboard. She has a headset on and is wearing a white blouse with a black epaulette labelled "ENQUIRY OFFICER" in white lettering.PA Media
Ch Supt Mike Smith said the portal would reduce the number of calls from of the public to the control room

A police force is considering introducing a new online portal for of the public to track the progress of crimes they have reported.

Ch Supt Mike Smith of Warwickshire Police told Stratford-on-Avon District Council's overview and scrutiny committee it could "take a significant number of calls out of the control room".

Mr Smith said it would help people know what was happening with the investigation into crimes they had reported.

But the idea was still being developed and would likely involve "significant" costs, he added.

"The old adage that resonates with me is if you order a parcel from Amazon, you never phone Amazon to see where your parcel is, you just go online and you can look," he said, while acknowledging that the "infinite number of things that could happen with the investigation" made it more challenging.

"It is more complex, but the basic concept of being able to go online and see where your investigation is once it is reported to us is sound, and somewhere we want to get to," he said.

'Significant' cost

Mr Smith said the force had a number of meetings with technology suppliers to see how the project would work.

"The challenge with it - and this is why we can't promise timescales at this stage - is you have to link that into your records management system," he said.

"There are millions of records and to interface any public-facing portal with that is quite significant in of cost.

"We are in the process of changing our records management system... the aspiration is to move as quickly as possible to a position where the public can track their crime online."

Andy Crump, the chair of the committee said one of the most frustrating things for of the public was not being able to see the progress on crimes they had reported

"If the online portal is a way forward, that would certainly help," he said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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