§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place details of the national strategy for the use of computers to support police investigations in criminal methods referred to in the report of the Inspector of Constabulary for 1981 in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. MayhewNational implications of the use of computers for operational purposes by police forces are kept under review by the Department in consultation with chief officers of police. The main areas to which effort is currently being directed are the preparation of standards relating to the information requirements and design of computerised criminal information systems; the development of codes of practice; the provision of computer assistance for major criminal investigations; and the introduction of automatic fingerprint recognition and retrieval systems.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will seek to obtain a copy of the fifth and earlier editions of the Association of Chief Police Officers reports on the police use of computers; and if he will place them in the Library;
(2) if he will take steps to obtain copies of the operational specifications of all approved criminal information systems that have been purchased by local police forces; and if he will place copies in the Library.
§ Mr. MayhewWe are consulting the Association of Chief Police Officers, and will write to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces have or intend to have a police national computer interface.
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§ Mr. MayhewThe police forces for Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Sussex, Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands already have a computer-to-computer interface with the police national computer. The Metropolitan Police, the Scottish Criminal Record Office and the police forces for Cumbria, Durham, Fife, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Kent, Lincolnshire, Lothian and Borders and South Yorkshire have decided to implement an interface. We are aware that five other forces are considering whether to do so.