Introduction

UK police forces have been making use of computers to aid their fight against crime for over 25 years. The setting up of the Police National Computer (PNC) at Hendon in 1974 marked the beginning of a concerted effort to introduce computers to all aspects of policing.

Unfortunately, with no central controlling body, each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales developed their own separate systems. Many of these were incompatible with the others, which meant that the sharing of information and criminal intelligence data was not easy.

In order to overcome these problems the National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS) was launched in 1994. This set out to develop standards for both data and software which would allow all forces to share and communicate data. This role was taken on by the Police Information Technology Organization (PITO) in 1996. This organization works closely not only with police forces throughout the country but also with commercial organizations to deliver effective IT solutions to all police forces and associated organisations.

One of their major responsibilities in the development of the PNC, which is still based at Hendon.