Police Computer Systems Improvements (Hansard, 26 May 1988)

The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)
My Lords, computer technology has already brought the police more effective systems for handling major criminal investigations, for deploying police officers and for recording and analysing crimes. There will be continuing development of this nature.

§ Lord Gainford
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Does he have information on how computers can speed up identification of crimes and criminals?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the police national computer is being replaced at the moment. That will give it more capacity, which should result in the quicker retrieval of information.

§ Lord Mishcon
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the Question is very important in regard to the detection of crime and the saving of manpower? Can he give the House news about the development of at least three devices? The first device, about which the police are very keen, is AFR—automatic fingerprint retrieval—which is already in use in the United States, Canada and Japan. The second device is the electronic photofit, which is at an experimental stage in Hertfordshire but which is not in use generally. The third device is the very useful automatic notebook, known technically as the HHID—the hand-held input device.

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, as usual, the noble Lord, Lord Mishcon, has asked penetrating questions of detail. As regards automatic fingerprint recognition—AFR—I can tell him that the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police are working on that project. It is a pilot project for a national AFR system. So far as the electronic photofit system is concerned, I applaud the noble Lord for his detailed knowledge of those matters. The system has been on trial with the Lancashire Constabulary. We are considering whether the system will be suitable for use on the new police national computer. As regards hand-held 1007 input devices, which the noble Lord described as electronic notebooks, those are in use in many police forces. They cannot be used to access the police national computer and there are no plans to allow such devices to be used with the PNC.

§ Lord Harmar-Nicholls
My Lords, can we be sure that trained policemen are not being used to read the computers who could be better employed on the beat? Are civilians being used for that purpose?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, all forces are engaged in a considerable civilianisation programme for the very purpose which my noble friend has mentioned—to put uniformed police on the beat.

§ Lord Mishcon
My Lords, while I thank the noble Earl for his customary courtesy, can the House be assured that these matters are receiving his urgent attention as a Minister with special responsibility for the police, because the police themselves to my certain knowledge are most anxious that they should be proceeded with with diligence?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, the noble Lord is quite right to emphasise that point because improving the status and ability of the police to function properly is very important. He would like to know that £25 million was spent in 1986 on operational computer systems and very considerable work and expenditure are being put into computerising the police force.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, can efforts be directed to finding a substitute for the term "civilianisation", which might put civilians off?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, it is one better than "screenees" to which one of the noble and learned Lord's noble friends was subjected yesterday.

§ Lord Allen of Abbeydale
My Lords, since the Question looks to the future, is it worth putting on record that the police national computer has now been functioning for some 20 years and that originally the police themselves were very dubious about its benefits but since it was forced upon them they have come to value its contribution towards the detection of crime?

Earl Ferrers
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for drawing your Lordships' attention to that fact. The police national computer is a very considerable asset. Apart from containing the names of criminals and conviction details and information on stolen or suspect vehicles, 33 million inquiries are made into it each year and 90,000 a day. There are 2,700 terminals connected to the computer, so it has a major impact.