Vulnerable victims “put at risk” by GMP’s new computer system, report finds

The rollout of Greater Manchester Police’s computer system iOPS left vulnerable victims “potentially at risk”, an independent review has found.

The Integrated Operation Policing System, iOPS, was introduced in July 2019 to simultaneously replace three ICT systems with one integrated system.

The report, by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), says that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) “can't be confident it has identified and appropriately referred all people at risk”.

The report continues: “The force doesn’t yet have a full understanding of the threat and risk that all the backlogs contain.”

It states that the force’s productivity was lowered after the introduction of iOPS saw a large increase in backlogs.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/132660/greater-manchester-police-using-paper-to-record-data-after-computer-error

The report claims that after the initial launch of iOPS, the time the force took to answer emergency 999 calls increased from 12 seconds to 48 seconds – due to the “increased complexity when compared with their legacy command and control system”, and “unfamiliarity with iOPS”.

At the time of the inspection, the average time to answer a 999 call had improved to 22 seconds. However, this still fails to meet the national target of under 10 seconds, the report states.

This inspection was conducted at the request of the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and commissioned by the Mayor’s Office of Greater Manchester Combined Authority. 

HM Inspector of Constabulary Phil Gormley said: “This inspection was undertaken at the request of the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. It is not a technical appraisal of iOPS or the precursor systems. Rather, it is a review of the operational difficulties encountered following the implementation of iOPS and the Force response.

“I do not underestimate the scale or complexity of this change programme. It is clear some of the difficulties encountered were unavoidable. However, it is similarly clear there are significant lessons for the future.

“I have made a number of recommendations, which if adopted, will enable the force to address the underlying issues of system capability, working practices and staff training. I continue to monitor the situation and hope to see the force restoring staff confidence in iOPs and delivering on the ambitions and intended benefits.”

Responding to the report’s findings, GMP’s Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said: “GMP’s legacy information system had been subject to many years of negative comment in HMICFRS Inspection from our staff. This was because they were decades old, not sustainable and there was significant risk of catastrophic failure. These systems were creating significant risks for the public and officers alike because of inaccurate data and the risk of catastrophic failure.

“Our new system enables compliance with National IT strategies, GDPR and allows us to significantly improve service delivery to the public through our use of mobile technology and better sharing information with partners. 

“iOPS is made up of several systems that link in together including two key products - Police Works and Control Works, developed by Capita, an experienced supplier in the police marketplace. The modern infrastructure and data warehousing has improved our ability to understand in live-time the demand we have in Greater Manchester, and the resources at our disposal through its inter-active iOPS Dashboard – new functionality that GMP has never had before.

“The migration process of information to the new system was a technical success, with over 25 million records successfully migrated from our legacy systems (with a 0% failure rate), and we are working hard to introduce external reporting of the data to partners and the Home Office now the system is live and stable.

“We have worked closely with a number of external agencies in order to mitigate reduced service levels and continue to work with Capita to ensure advancements in the system are maximised and tailored to suit the needs of GMP. Following the launch of ControlWorks GMP saw improved performance with the waiting time for 999 calls to be answered falling and the number of calls answered increasing.

“The new system provides better quality information to officers and managers, and officers are now able to work, more effectively and flexibly in their communities from mobile devices, and it provides a platform for future cutting edge technology applications with the investment in high-specification equipment and software.”

HMICFRS recommendations include:

Recommendation 1

• The force needs to develop a full understanding of the threat and risk contained within all its backlogs. In particular, it should review all domestic abuse incidents recorded by the force between the launch of iOPS and October 2019 to ensure that an appropriate response has been provided and referral made to the relevant agency.

Recommendation 2

• The force should satisfy itself that all districts have completed a full audit of child protection incidents which occurred between the introduction of iOPS and the implementation of a quality assurance process which commenced in October 2019, to ensure appropriate referrals to partner agencies have been made.

Combined GMP response for recommendations 1 and 2: Following the launch of iOPS, a dedicated team has been established centrally to review all reports to GMP that feature Domestic Abuse or any Concern for a Child. This is to reassure ourselves that all of the reports received have wider safeguarding measures in place. 

We are confident that all reports to GMP have already received a response that involves officer attendance where any immediate safeguarding risks will have been addressed as part of each officer’s safeguarding responsibilities.  This further review will now allow us the opportunity to ensure that we have a thorough and long-term partnership response in place for all cases involving vulnerability.

The central team of experienced members of staff is being closely overseen at the highest levels within GMP, which demonstrates our commitment to addressing the HMIC recommendations and safeguarding vulnerable people within our communities.

Recommendation 3

• The force should take steps to enhance the search capability within iOPS to ensure that the facility for the system to search for different spellings of the same name (phonetic searching) is available at the earliest opportunity.

GMP response: Enhancements have been agreed with our supplier, based on user workshops last summer. A further training package is currently underway to demonstrate the power of the search tool.

The search enhancements are scheduled for our next code upgrade, later this year.

Recommendation 4

• The force should review those cases where victims of crime were not referred to victims’ services following the introduction of iOPS to ensure that any vulnerable victims receive appropriate support.

GMP response: All crimes are risk assessed at the point we speak to the public, whether in person or on the phone. Our staff are trained to identify vulnerability and, if detected, these cases are individually risk assessed.

Once that assessment is complete we then make referrals where appropriate to our partners who can provide specialist support and guidance. We also provide victims with information to self-refer to support agencies.

Although there was an initial drop in referrals, we have identified that the quality of referrals has improved, meaning that we are helping those people most at risk, and providing the support needed through our external specialist partners to cope and recover.

We are pleased that we are now in a position where referrals are almost at the same levels as before iOPS.

Recommendation 5

• The force should ensure that all necessary data previously available on the legacy systems is easily searchable and accessible to officers and staff.

GMP response: All data was migrated into a Legacy Data Store from the legacy systems, giving officers the ability to search historical data.

A further training has been developed, to demonstrate the power of the search tool. Enhancements to search have been agreed with our supplier based user workshops

The search enhancements upgrade is scheduled within our next code upgrade, due later this year.

Recommendation 6

• The force needs to ensure it effectively engages with partners at force and local level when undertaking significant change programmes.

GMP response: We agree that engagement with all our partners and stakeholders was a challenge. Since Go Live we have increased our engagement, frequency and content.

This has been done through external partners, such as Local Authority Chief Executives, the Director of Children’s services and Members of Parliament, who were updated with key messages at each stage of any iOPS updates.

We also extensively briefed the Policing Minister with updates on future planned upgrades.

A live demonstration of the system was shown to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Councillor who leads for Digital within Greater Manchester.

All Greater Manchester MPs have also been invited into GMP in April to ask questions of the Chief Constable and see a live demo of the system.

Recommendation 7

• The force should review its internal communication plan to ensure all staff are informed, consulted and engaged in the ongoing development of iOPS.

GMP response: The force has a robust communications plan, which was already in action prior to HMICFRS inspection and continues to be developed through review processes

There is a dedicated iOPS internal communications officer who disseminates information via a number of different channels to ensure all staff receive regular updates.

The channels used are: emails sent to relevant force leads, briefings to senior officers, regular meetings each week specific to iOPS, updated intranet articles that are easily accessible to all staff, Q&A sessions and demonstrations. Face-to-face technical visits are made as a follow-up on any direct contact made from a user.

There are also dedicated upskilling and training days for members of the senior leadership teams to dispel myths, improve confidence in the system and improve morale.

All channels allow staff to provide feedback and voice any concerns they have, which will be looked into and rectified if necessary. 

Recommendation 8

• The force should review and evaluate the operational effectiveness of its training plan for iOPS to ensure all staff are appropriately trained to enable them to carry out their role.

GMP response: A training review occurred prior to HMICFRS inspection, and the package continues to evolve through ongoing, long-established review processes. A dedicated PoliceWorks training team remains in place.

Recommendation 9

• The force should develop a sustainable approach to address the underlying problems with systems capability, training and the new operational and working processes.

GMP response: The iOPS Futures Project, delivers this requirement. iOPS Futures also contains training and business engagement teams, to ensure that operational processes improve alongside the technical enhancements.

The force has a strong roadmap running through to mid-2020.  This includes a wide range of enhancements and prioritised functional adjustments.  Since the HMRC visit we have implemented version 2.4 and version 2.6 bringing improvements to the system for front-line officers.