It was reported today that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) has been used over 400 times in the past two years by councils across the Black Country. RIPA was introduced to regulate investigations by public bodies (including covert surveillance, the use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources, interception of communications and the use of communications data); it is used by councils to investigate offences such as rogue trading, benefit cheating and flytipping. ABM’s software for managing covert operations and investigations is fully compliant with RIPA legislation. The full article can be read here.
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Brands face threats from a variety of angles in today’s global market – particularly from counterfeiters and brand pirates
July 26th, 2010In today’s expanding global market, brands and products face an array of threats to their reputation and integrity at all stages in the supply chain. The dangers are as real for blue chip brands and the world’s biggest labels as they are for smaller companies.
Thieves target BT’s copper cables
July 26th, 2010Attacks on communications giant BT’s network of copper cables in Scotland rose by 9% last year, the company said. It said the attacks, which were mainly thefts, left vulnerable people isolated, limited access to the emergency services and cost the company millions of pounds every year.
“Better value for money in policing will be a challenge…”
July 21st, 2010“…but it is possible” – the words of Sir Dennis O’Connor as two reports on value for money in UK policing were published yesterday. HMIC’s report, Valuing the Police, found that only 11 percent of total police personnel are visible and available to the public at any one time and highlighted a need to improve shift patterns to more accurately match demand. It finds that too much time is increasingly spent on investigation and specialist functions while the number of police officers working in the community has fallen over the last four years.
A seperate report by the Audit Commission, HMIC and the Wales Audit Office, entitled “Sustaining value for money in the police service“, found that, crime has fallen by 45 percent since 1995, but this has been coupled with significant increases in police spending which has, according to the report, been poorly scrutinised and challenged.
The report shows that 80% of police spending is on the workforce which suggests that, if real cost and efficiency savings are to be made, police forces need to think carefully about the deployment of personnel resources, reducing unnecessary management and over-skilled back-office workers. The report goes on to challenge the police service to make savings of up to £1 billion (12% of current expenditure). £420m of this is accounted for through savings in procurement, back office, reducing overtime, workforce modernisation and reducing management overheads. But the report suggests that an additional £500m can be saved through productivity improvements - i.e. reducing the number of police officers or making them work harder… Whether such savings are truly achievable remains to be seen.
The Shape of Policing
July 20th, 2010The Chief Inspector of Constabulary this morning has published a report detailing what everyone else has been thinking these past weeks. The fact of the matter is that anything over a 12% cut in police funding cannot be achieved without re-engineering the way in which UK police is organised and functions. The reality is that over the last 10 years we have created a police service which has been dogged by bureaucracy, red tape and, at times, a risk averse approach. All of this, as in any organisation that suffers the same level of hand tying, results in increased costs and increased inefficiency.
Sir Dennis O’Connor is therefore right that we should now look at the whole picture in terms of UK policing structure and service and go back to basics in terms of delivering core services. One solution to the problem may well be an acceleration of merging territorial based policing within regions and moving more specialised services to the centre. Do I dare to say a return of the Regional Crime Squad in disguise..? At least under this model, the public get their territorial and local based service whilst major crime investigation and other specialised services are concentrated where it counts. The biggest hurdle to cross now is that of investment. The merger process and setting up of central service incurs significant investment against long term savings. The question is will there be political commitment to spend now and save later? The plot thickens and it may well not come to any conclusion until after the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in October where the real devastation by cuts may eventually be revealed.
FAST, Trading Standards test out new powers in Welsh raid
July 16th, 2010The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) and Swansea Trading Standards have conducted their first anti-piracy raid using powers granted in 2007 under section 107A of the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which allows for surprise inspection of business premises on reasonable suspicion of copyright infringement…
Is your organisation looking to the clouds?
July 15th, 2010Cloud Computing is the hot topic in the IT industry and will have a significant impact on how software will be developed and deployed in the future. There can be no doubt that there is a very real trend toward cloud platforms. Virtualisation, service orientation and the Internet have converged to allow individuals and businesses to choose how they will acquire and deliver IT services.
Used in the right way, Cloud Computing will transform IT delivery within your organisation, helping you reduce cost, increase flexibility and staff mobility. Used in the wrong way, then you run the risk of IT anarchy.
If you don’t have a strategy for how your business can harness and benefit from Cloud Computing, then you really need to start thinking about this now and remember, this is not just about the technology, but the benefits it can deliver to your business.
Cloud Computing is here and is here to stay. It will revolutionise the way we use software and services in our business life and private life.
So are you ready for the revolution?
Crime at lowest level for 29 years: but for how long?
July 15th, 2010The latest British Crime Survey reveals that crime in England and Wales is at its lowest levels since 1981; but how long can this downward trend in crime last with talk of ‘budget cuts threatening 60,000 police jobs’? According to former Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tim Brain this is the number of police officer, civillian staff and community support officer posts that could be axed by 2015. Reducing bureaucracy and police collaboration/ regionalisation may allow more to be done with less to a certain extent but surely no-one can expect current levels of front-line policing to be maintained if this worst case scenario is realised.
15,000 people fight back against fraudsters…
July 12th, 2010Action Fraud, the UK’s first national fraud reporting centre, has had 15,000 web reports and calls in the last six months from members of the public who have joined the fight against fraud.
Rewarding the informant
July 8th, 2010Florida‘s media appear to be getting themselves worked up about rewarding a confidential informantwho helped police to capture a man accused of killing two Tampa police officers. Despite the promise of a $100,000 reward for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of Dontae Morris who shot dead two police officers on Tuesday 29th June, it is not clear whether the confidential informant who helped police will be entitled to any of the reward money. This is because Confidential Informants are not treated as normal members of the public and are therefore not eligible for reward money.
The majority of media reporters clearly feel that the informant should be rewarded for his efforts and take the view that failure to reward the informant could reduce the incentive for people to come forward with information related to future crimes.
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