Intelligence management

Leicestershire Constabulary has launched a new version of its in-house Genie search engine, incorporating the ability to undertake MoPI review, retention and disposal requirements.

Leicestershire Constabulary has unveiled the latest version of its in-house application, Genie 2.0 (GENeral Intelligence Enquiry).

Its original Genie application was devised over ten years ago by the force’s IT consultant Ian Webb, with copies also supplied to other forces within the East Midlands region to allow the software to be utilised locally.

Genie 2.0 is a family of .Net applications developed using true N-tier architecture, meaning it can be deployed to different environments while maintaining the business logic in a collection of web services.

It is part of a programme of both business process and systems development to further improve the intelligence infrastructure within Leicestershire Constabulary, while also applying the principles underpinning the Government’s Management of Police Information (MoPI) Impact programme.

Genie 2.0 was designed with regional collaboration in mind. Web services can be deployed to remote locations allowing other force systems to be searched either in real-time or in batch mode.

Genie 2.0 is a combination of a search engine linked to corporate systems, together with a review, retention and disposal (RRD) management workflow tool.

Leicestershire’s director of intelligence, Superintendent Mark Wilson, explained: “Genie 2.0 provides a single search facility across our intelligence systems and also provides a means to make sure that the data we hold is relevant and up-to-date.”

Challenge

The challenge for Leicestershire Constabulary, in line with other forces, was identifying all the information held about a particular individual across its various systems, linking that information together, applying a MoPI grouping according to the perceived level of risk and storing the decision-making rationale.

Genie is a Windows application that is linked to the main information systems held within the force, including those serving the six core business areas identified within the Impact programme: the purpose and process for managing police information; collection of police information; recording of police information; evaluation and actioning of police information; information sharing; and RRD.

Searches can be made against names and dates of birth, vehicle registration marks, addresses and telephone numbers. It is intended to expand the capability in future releases to search against other criteria.

These searches can be undertaken against force databases such as intelligence, crime, firearms licensing, child abuse, domestic abuse, custody, missing persons, warrants, incidents, licensing register, fixed penalty and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

Results can be filtered and displayed to an end user’s personal requirements and an enhanced version for use by force analysts, allowing the export of data, has been implemented. It is also possible to link directly from the search results into source databases.

Maximum Impact

The software was specifically developed to incorporate the requirements of the MoPI Impact programme.

Focusing on a bottom-up approach and driven by user feedback, a management tool was devised to assist with the undertaking of MoPI RRD. Genie 2.0 has the capability to link information together under a prime record, electronically store the MoPI national retention assessment criteria (NRAC) and store and display a relevant MoPI grouping, as well as a subsequent review date.

Genie 2.0 has been designed for use both within the office desktop environment, and also with Leicestershire’s mobile data terminals (MDTs) and BlackBerry mobile devices, providing officers with operational benefits while working away from stations and within their communities. The ability to display the latest intelligence photographs has assi