back to article Spending cuts force police IT merger

Cash-strapped police in the East Midlands will merge IT services in an effort to protect front line spending. Five forces - Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Northamptonshire - have agreed to work together to see what savings can be made. Each force currently runs its own staff administration …

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  1. Is it me?

    Yep

    Herts & Beds announced a similar agreement last week, and I think they were in favour of a National Police Airforce to replace the Chiltern Air Support Unit.

    Perhaps they can find a use for 50 redundant Harriers,.

    Joyrider = Air Support = Air Strike = Result.

  2. Geoff Thompson

    Save money?

    = hole in the road = roadworks for months. Err = no.

    Will the ITC merger (if it is such) actually save any money I wonder?

    1. Dunstan Vavasour

      Real Savings

      > "Will the ITC merger (if it is such) actually save any money I wonder?"

      Probably. If each is running their own datacentre then there are significant economies of scale in the hotel services alone. There are economies of scale in having a single entity for network, storage and backup administration. And there may be ways of pooling software licences, to eliminate potential over-licensing.

      Anyway, it's often not a case of consolidating stuff that's running happily, rather you'd change over as applications came to the end of their lives, and could be replaced by one instance of (say) custody records rather than five.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Savings? really?

        Unfortunately I doubt this would save much money in the short term, probably costing more in studies to determine if merging systems would be feasible. Then the idea of replacing software when it comes to end of life… well that is about 20 years for most critical systems. Most others would have been customised to each forces need, so when replacing those all the forces would have to have an input, rather than just upgrade one. Data centres are distributed already and I imagine would remain in each location for security reasons.

        Any force IT merger talks used to fill me with worry, but the thought of getting rid of DLT III tapes would likely fill any of the IT departments with happiness!

        1. Ted Treen
          Flame

          If...

          They could merge senior officers (halve the number of taxpayer-provided Mercs immediately), merge "performance monitoring" staff, merge "diversity" trainers then they just might realise how many unwarranted & unnecessary non-plod personnel they have.

          Save money by cutting waste & profligacy:- not by cutting staff who actually do something.

  3. JaitcH
    Pint

    Smart Plod thinking - they should all do it

    What wonders budget cuts can achieve!

    Let's have even more cuts, Cameron.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Home Secretary's brilliant IT strategy

    If only the public knew just how non-strategic the Home Office view of police IT is... for example, when the Home Secretary announced that the NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency) was to be abolished, and that any retained service provisions would be implemented by the creation of the National Crime Agency a year later, she had to be quietly advised to push back the abolition by a year for continuity of service provision...

    She didn't know that the NPIA operates and maintains the Police National Computer, the absence of which for a year might just have created a few problems with operational policing... :)

  5. Geoff Thompson

    Hmm I wonder

    I have a feeling this will involve lots of meetings at three levels, earnest attempts and discussions and result in either a radical overhaul or tinkering. My guess is the latter, but we shall see. (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes) - when the ICT departments are the only ones who understand?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    don't forget the best part.

    or worst part.....5 complete IT staffs put on the dole.

  7. Ku...

    short term savings

    Even if the savings are not in the short term savings are savings. One of the problems we have is a lack of strategic thinking, not looking to the mid or long term. Maybe a forces consolidation won't save money in 2011/12 and certainly won't in 2010/11 but if there is real saving in 2012+ then thats a saving for future tax years. Lordy only knows what the situation for public spending will be by then. Just because we need to save now doesn't mean we should discount savings for tomorrow. This is why we still have all these lumbering 20th century structures - there is no short term gain in changing them and everybody is all about the short term. If this had been done 2 - 3 years ago we'd be saving the money now. Lets not be in 2 -3 years time in the same situation wondering where the money is goign to come from to run this stuff.

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