Business Intelligence – Norfolk Constabulary Reduces Crime with Performance Management Solution

Norfolk Constabulary serves a population of 840,700 with 1,640 police officers. In keeping with a national trend, senior officers are eager to improve public perception by applying performance management and customer service to policing.

In the public sector, higher customer expectation linked with increasingly tight budgets drives the need to eliminate waste and receive better value for money. Norfolk Constabulary was seeking a solution to improve the flow of information throughout the police force, and to the Home Office.

Working with Microsoft and our solution partner, Contemporary, Norfolk Constabulary implemented the Policing Performance Management solution. This is a data management system that puts vital information, including crime figures, at the disposal of police officers. It helps police pinpoint problems and direct the appropriate resources to the areas that need them. Implementation has helped cut crime, provide better service to the public, and improved the ability of the police to solve community problems.

The system provides information for officers at all levels of the police force by pulling it from various sources into a SQL Server data cube that provides analytics and data-mining capabilities. Information, personalised to the specific needs of each user, is presented through dashboards and reports. Users access the information through Microsoft Office SharePoint.

• The dashboard: Every user has access to the dashboard, a series of dials with a needle that moves from green, to amber, to red—depending on how the force as a whole is meeting its “pledges and principles,” strategic aims, and objectives.
• The scorecard: Users all have their own customised scorecards showing the information they need to do their specific jobs. Scorecards deliver a holistic view of performance, allowing officers to be tactically and organisationally aware.
• Self-briefing system: Officers who have been away for a few days can catch up with an overview of crime and activity during their absence, by using the self-briefing system.
• Individual performance indicators: A standardised set of data shows what employees are doing. Performance is measured against specific goals—set by the Assessment of Policing in Community Safety framework—such as how many crimes officers are investigating, how many incidents they’ve attended, and whether they responded on time. 
• Delivery of data to other services: Data is now sent to the Home Office and other partner agencies in a standardised way.

You can read the full story of how Norfolk Constabulary uses information smarter to help them serve the community and cut crime by 20 per cent over two years here and find out more about Microsoft technologies for business intelligence and performance management here.

Posted by Ian