Police National Database hailed since launch

The Police National Database (PND) is playing an important role in safeguarding potential victims and bringing offenders to justice more quickly, according to the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).

Since its launch one year ago, the PND has helped law enforcement agencies tackle a number of serious crimes from protecting children from being groomed on Facebook to tackling drugs traffickers.

The NPIA said the system has already transformed the way police and law enforcement agencies in the UK share locally held intelligence and information. They are now able to see the full intelligence picture immediately, and identify patterns of criminal behaviour much earlier.

Since its launch, more than 700,000 searches have been conducted on the PND for information, illustrating its value to policing.

Some of the successes include:

• Providing intelligence about an organised crime gang involved in the wholesale supply of drugs;
• Identifying potential leads in a double murder investigation;
• Helping police to track down a missing Registered Sex Offender; and
• Providing more information about a domestic violence offender which led police to identify a further individual who was a repeat victim.

Nick Gargan, chief executive of the NPIA, said: “The scale of use shows just how important the Police National Database has become as a crime fighting tool in only a short period of time. It now provides police with a faster and automated system for sharing vital information.

“It is particularly poignant and re-assuring to reflect on its successes as we approach August and the tenth anniversary of the tragic events at Soham that led to the development of the Police National Database.”

The PND, which has been delivered in partnership with the police service, and technology and service company Logica, has already seen a series of upgrades to the PND to make it easier to identify and trace suspects from only limited information available to investigators.

These include searches relating to an individual’s description, such as distinguishing marks, height, gender or age, and other information linked directly to a suspect such as objects, locations or police records such as crime reports or custody information.