By Ron Coates, 2 November 2000 18:45
NEWS The software tracks all information and evidence during an investigation, and provides facilities for information management and task management as well as graphic geographical analysis. It also collates all evidence for court presentations and disclosure to the defence. Kent police used the system in their investigation of the deaths of the Chinese immigrants found in a container at Dover, and its disaster management functions were used at both the Paddington rail disaster and the recent one at Hatfield. Ken Grange, project manager for Holmes2, said: "This is a major advancement over Holmes and early versions have already proven themselves in use. It offers better analysis and it automates a large number of processes, cutting down on the paper flow, and thus saves time. The big advantage over Holmes is its facility for use across force boundaries." Work on the system - which was developed by Unisys - began in 1997, and was advanced enough by the beginning of last year to be installed at forces facing Y2K problems. It is now used by 20 forces, with another 10 being trained to deploy it. The cost of the software will be from £100,000 for small forces to £1m for the biggest. As a client/server system, it is heavily reliant on its network. The establishment of the new Police National Network has solved most early teething problems, but Grange admitted that individual forces would have to take a strategic look at their networks to handle both administrative traffic and Holmes2.
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