Norfolk Constabulary

Services Team and Police Build Performance
Management System That Helps Cut Crime

To streamline police management and service to the public, Norfolk Constabulary wanted to improve the flow of information throughout the police force, and to the Home Office. The police turned to Microsoft Services for a solution. The resulting Policing Performance Management solution is a data management system that puts vital information, including crime figures, at the disposal of police officers. It helps police pinpoint problems and direct the appropriate resources to the areas that need them. Implementation has helped cut crime, provide better service to the public, and improved the ability of the police to solve community problems.

Situation

With 1,640 police officers, Norfolk Constabulary serves a population of 840,700 in the eastern region of the United Kingdom (U.K.). In keeping with a national trend, senior officers were eager to improve public perception by applying performance management and customer service to policing. They wanted to increase the public profile of the force and focus on the safety issues important to the communities they serve. 

The constabulary sent increasing amounts of data to the Home Office and other statutory agencies, but information was managed in a haphazard way. As the force added new computer systems, staff would grab data from several sources and input it into performance reports manually. Keith Philpot, Inspector, Business Performance Unit, Norfolk Constabulary, says: There wasn’t one authority deciding what information to publish to the wider police force of Norfolk Constabulary.

Individuals who were thought to have the most accurate information were given the responsibility to disseminate it.  Delays and confusion caused by the lack of a central data system were especially apparent when sharing crime figures. Crime data, crucial to daily police activity, was 24 hours out of date, while information tracking individual performance was a month old. Managing officers were keen to follow the best practice guidelines for sharing police performance data set by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Their first challenge was to figure out how to manage data without unwieldy manual processes. We understood that to get the most out of our system, we would have to think about how we use our data and how we shape our internal processes around that data, says Inspector Philpot.

pdf  Read the full Norfolk Constabulary Case Study 

Quick Facts

Industry
Police


Business Plan
Norfolk Constabulary wanted to improve public perception of the police, focusing on the safety issues important to the communities it serves.


Solution
The Microsoft® Policing Performance Management solution, from Microsoft Services, provides information for officers at all levels of the police force.

In their own words:

"In the past, we’ve bought a wonderful system, but when it’s gone wrong, or no one’s been able to correct it or fix it, we’ve had to get rid of it and get another system or hire expensive consultants to try to put it right. Now, if something goes wrong, we can fix it ourselves."

Inspector Philpot
Norfolk Constabulary