Police in Cambridgeshire will soon be able access information about criminals held by other forces as a new computer service is rolled out.

A national framework agreement has been signed for the 'one stop' IT system which is being adopted by forces in  Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The forces will be paying a total of £32million during the lifetime of the agreement but the costs to each force will drop as and when more forces come on board.

The forces will be paying a total of £32million during the lifetime of the agreement but the costs to each force will drop as and when more forces come on board.
The setting up of a system like this was one of the key recommendations of the 2004 Bichard Inquiry, which followed the murders of Soham school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

Ian Huntley, who was convicted of their murders, managed to get a job as a caretaker at Soham Village College. CRB checks carried out by Cambridgeshire police failed to show information held about him by Humberside police.

It's claimed that Project Athena will improve front-line policing, save police forces time and money and help to improve the service they provide to the public. It's the largest-ever collaborative police IT project and will be delivered by Northgate Public Services.

Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Simon Parr said: "The Athena Project is an opportunity for the force to streamline processes and provide greater support to fighting crime.

"By collaborating on the system we can reduce costs and increases each forces capability and capacity to quickly generate information about offenders.

"IT solutions like this ultimately save officers time which means we can direct more resources to operational policing.”

Until now, police forces have largely managed data on offenders, suspects, victims and incidents on different systems at a local level. This made it a challenge to share information quickly with other forces.

Time will also be saved after a suspect is arrested, as those officers working in custody and preparing cases will automatically have access to all the intelligence already held about a suspect.

Ian Blackhurst, Executive Director of Northgate Public Services, commented: "This project is a huge step forward in policing and is a signal that forces are embracing collaboration in order to work more effectively together and in doing so reduce administrative costs.

"We will use our understanding of UK policing to deliver a safe and secure system that transforms police operations. It will result in vastly improved services to the public, at a significantly lower overall cost, which is great news in these times of austerity."

Athena is due to be fully implemented towards the end of 2012, with Essex Police being the first to go 'online'. The system will be managed centrally, helping to save forces money by reducing the need for ongoing management of multiple IT systems.