Page 165 – GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel 16/11/20 – Item PCFP/18/20 – iOPS Update

I first raised the deficiencies of the iOPs Integrated Operating Policing System over two years ago.  This system was meant to seamlessly replace three existing police computer system to provide enhanced capacity to Police officers and criminal prosecutors. The reality has proven vastly different. 

I have written to or met with the Greater Manchester Mayor and senior police officers to complain about it several times. Quite simply it has never been fit for purpose – and it has led to crimes not being properly recorded, victims not receiving a prompt and professional service, and prosecutors being unable to proceed with court cases.  Even Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary reported that police officers had ‘very little confidence’ in it and were ‘frustrated’ by a system that does not always return ‘accurate results’.

Yet the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as our Police and Crime Commissioners keep insisting that the system will eventually prove its worth.  Two years on can the Council’s representative on the panel provide us with any real reassurance when this system will eventually work, or has it in fact proven to be just a blackhole into which public money has been poured, wasted on a system that was never fit-for-purpose?

Councillor Howard Sykes, 24 March 2021