Holmes: The Development of a Computerised Major Crime Investigation System
| Date | 01 July 1985 |
| Published date | 01 July 1985 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8505800304 |
| Author | D. M. S. Peace,R. C. Barrington |
| Subject Matter | Article |
R. C.
BARRINGTON
Superintendent. Essex Police. and
D. M. S. PEACE, PhD., B.Sc., M.I.M., C.Eng.
Scientific Research
and
Development Branch. Home Office.
HOLMES:
The development
of
acomputerised major crime
investigation system
Introduction
In 1974, the then Police Scientific Development Branch (PSDB) of
the Home Office commenced aresearch project known as the
Major Incident Project, which had as its objectives to consider how
the police service might use computers for the investigation of
major crimes. Traditionally, amajor crime was characterised by the
setting up of an Incident Room and the Major Incident Project has
concentrated upon how Incident Room procedures might benefit
by the introduction of computer systems. (The term "Incident
Room" is used to describe the administrative centre set up to
control amajor crime investigation).
For
various reasons, which are
mentioned later, the main progress in the Major Incident Project
has been made over the last five years, during which time it was the
largest single research project in the Home Office Police Research
Programme. Now, however, the project is virtually complete with
the appearance on the market of commercially available major
incident systems conforming to standards agreed by the Home
Office, in consultation with the Association of Chief Police Officers
(ACPO).
During the period of its development the overall project
comprised anumber of sub-projects, some of which have become
widely known by their acronyms and other shortened forms:
MIRIAM
(Major Incident Room Index and Action
Management)
Interim Arrangements (AutoIndex)
HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System)
To this list of activities should also be added afurther item
which, although not part of the Major Incident Project, as such,
was intimately associated with it. This was the development of the
manual Major Investigation Incident Room Standardised
Administrative Procedures, to which the police members of the
project team made a significant contribution.
In the account which follows, the major initiatives mentioned
above are described separately for the purpose
of
clarity, although
in practice they were by no means separate and made heavily
competing demands on the relatively modest resources available by
July 1985 207
way of project personnel, who were a mixture of Home Office
scientists and serving police officers.
Initial Work
Work commenced, by visrtmg anumber of Incident Rooms
and observing the procedures employed and the rate at which
documents such as statements and actions were created and
stored, with a view to assessing the likely requirements for
computer facilities. Later, attempts were made to assist inquiries by
making some computer facilities available to the investigators, in
addition to their existing manual methods. In general, however,
such trials were dogged by technical difficulties associated with
inadequacies of the hardware and software available at the time,
with the result that, in 1980, the Home Office terminated the series
of ad hoc trials
that
it had been pursuing in favour of developing a
comprehensive system, not merely to supplement existing manual
procedures, but intended completely to replace them with
computer-based procedures.
The Manual Major Investigation Incident Room Standardised
Administrative Procedures
The decision to attempt to computerise the procedures used in
Incident Rooms prompted anumber of questions about the
appropriateness of existing manual procedures. The Incident Room
procedures themselves were the product of an evolutionary process.
Twenty years ago there were three times as many police forces in
England and Wales as there are now. Some were very small, with
the senior
CID
officer having a relatively low rank and limited
experience of major crime inquiries. This lack of experience in
major crime investigation in many forces was offset to some extent
by the practice of sending
out
senior detectives from New Scotland
Yard to lead provincial murder inquiries of a serious and
complicated nature. The senior officer, normally aDetective Chief
Superintendent, would take with him a Detective Inspector or
Detective Sergeant who would organize amurder room, or Incident
Room, as they have become known. Investigations where large
numbers of police officers were engaged in conducting numerous
separate inquiries and interviewing hundreds, or even thousands, of
people could not be managed without asound and pre-
determined system of administration. The Metropolitan Police had
developed such a system and this, in the course of their visits to
various parts of the country to conduct inquiries, was introduced to
anumber of provincial forces.
During the late 1960s
and
early 1970s, a series of local
government changes led to the disappearance of all the smaller
forces by the process of amalgamation with larger neighbours. With
the formation of larger provincial forces and, perhaps, because of
the general increase in the incidence of serious crimes, greater
208 July 1985
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