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10 Satisfaction with FPNs/ideas for improvement
This section summarises stakeholders' satisfaction with FPNs in turn and their ideas for improvement.
10.1 IT Procurement and Implementation
The procurement and implementation of IT was felt to have been relatively smooth, if somewhat rapid. There were a number of technical issues which arose and are described below, quotes are from Donna Sharp, senior analyst programmer within the Communications and IT department of Tayside Police. The items listed range from relatively minor amendments to SMART system, to substantial undertakings such as linking into the Anite system used by the District Courts.
10.1.1 Matching of the NES system with ISCJIS standards
"There are data standards that are set for transfer of information between the Criminal Justice Agencies, which are referred to as ISCJIS (Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems) Data Standards. The NES system was designed for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the data element formats do not directly map onto the ISCJIS standards for the data elements that are required to transfer to the Courts. An example of this is the size of the address fields; the ISCJIS format is shorter than the NES format. We have included some formatting of the data to convert the NES to ISCJIS format in our Fine Registration solution."
10.1.2 NES system introduction
"There is still some outstanding work for IT Development to assist in the reduction of administration of police staff details in the NES system. At present both the NES system and the VP/ FPO system require to be modified for new starts, name changes and location changes. The CTO fulfil this function, but the intention is that the changed information will be extracted from the force SCOPE system which is the core database for police staff details. The implementation of this solution will reduce double-keying of data between systems."
10.1.3 Subsequent alterations to the system
" SMART (Case Preparation System) - we included an " EDIT" Fixed Penalty Notice function to allow the differences on the ticket and those registered on the IT Systems to be rectified. (this was delivered as part of the Fine Registration solution, a small technical change) SMART - Validation of the FPN Number entry has been introduced. (a very minor technical change) SMART - A new change request is being formulated to facilitate cancelled tickets and the creation of the SPR (Standard Prosecution Report) where it is deemed that a ticket was given but was not appropriate and the offender should be reported to the PF. This will also allow the process of amending SCRO accordingly and a trackable audit on the force systems. (a small change)"
10.1.4 Work on fine registration information transfer to the District Court
"Fine Registration information was developed in-house by IT Development in partnership with the District Court supplier - Anite. This was developed in-house because there was already an existing in-house solution for the transfer of Fine Registration information from the system that processes the Traffic case tickets. The development took longer that expected due to additional functionality that the users deemed necessary in order to manage and process the Fine Registration information within the CTO and meet the ISCJIS requirements. IT Development worked closely with Anite who also had to make significant changes to the District Court System in order to process these new FPN notices."
10.1.5 Additional work required relating to the NES application and resources database
"The CTO staff have to update the VP/ FPO system and the NES system (both have similar database structure since NES was derived from VP/ FPO) with police worker information such as forename, surname, shoulder no, location etc. At present the CTO are given an email notification from the SCOPE system to notify them of location changes and new starts, they then have to manually update two systems with the same information. Within the current release of NES & VP/ FPO there is the ability to upload this information in batches. Tayside have been unable to develop this solution due to technical infrastructure issues - mainly the move to XP Desktop clients. The upgrade for NES is imminent therefore the work for this will be put forward for scheduling shortly. The solution will extract the police staff information (the SCOPE system is the primary source of police staff details) and create upload files for the CTO to apply to the VP/ FPO and NES system. Unfortunately there is no "automatic" solution within NES or VP/ FPO and some manual intervention is still required, but this will stop the manual keying of data in the police worker details."
These or similar issues may well arise in other Forces, in the event of a national roll-out and the experience of Tayside staff should be made available to IT departments in other areas to assist them in avoiding "reinventing the wheel".
10.2 Training
Officers largely (67%) seemed satisfied that their training was sufficient according to the e-survey. Those who thought otherwise generally appeared to have missed the cascade training and been introduced to the processes more informally. In most cases, they expressed the view that the process was straightforward and it had not been a major handicap.
Cascade training is an appropriate method for the rapid transfer of the uncomplicated information required by officers to complete an FPN. Other Forces may find that this works well for them, though ACPOS representatives suggested that additional means of conveying and reinforcing the details may be required in the Strathclyde area due to the large number and distribution of officers involved.
Support staff training was felt to be adequate, the processing of FPN tickets did not differ greatly from that applied to other tickets.
10.3 Project Development
The Project Board (see section 5.2.1 for composition) maintained close communication links with the staff involved in introducing the pilot. Communication was driven by the Project Board and Project Manager. A risk log was maintained to keep track of the potential problems and Project Documentation was be used to communicate information.
They ensured that sufficient staff were in place within the Central Ticket Office to meet the demands of the pilot exercise, and that training with regard to the legislation and the scheme was available to all operational staff.
In interviews, they expressed some of the benefits that had accrued as a result of the pilot, these are summarised below.
- Positive media reporting: Articles appeared in "The Courier" and "The Evening Telegraph", in March and April 2005 highlighting the introduction of the scheme. It was also covered by The Times Online and the BBC website in March 2005.
- Positive reports from the public.
- Residents' associations are aware of the situation and commented positively on the introduction of the pilot.
- Training has been very straightforward. Both the cascade training for officers and the NES-provided training for back office staff, were said to have gone well.
- The appropriate use of discretion to allow 'net widening', officers anecdotally saying ' FPNs pack a punch, warnings are ineffective'.
- Reduction in police reports submitted to the Procurator Fiscal (4000 less reports, 3000 FPNs, detection rates continue to rise).
- FPNs and other measures allow officers ability to concentrate on core duties. It keeps officers on the beat; still stay visible. Also time saving on release from custody.
- No financial costs to us to implement the pilot, (45 minutes to complete a report, time saving).
- Immediate Justice, it avoids the delays in the Criminal Justice System which is of benefit to the officers, the court system, the public and the offender.
10.4 Operational Police and CTO Support Staff
There is a lessening of the work going to the Procurator Fiscal from the CTO, and then a subsequent reduction in the amount of work coming back through that channel. The increase in workload due to FPNs was considerably more than estimated initially, but that was inherently unpredictable and therefore unavoidable, it should however act as a warning for other Forces. The CTO pointed out that their workload had increased as they had not previously been involved with any antisocial behaviour offences. It also expressed the view that the operational guidelines needed to be more strictly adhered to by the officers, though this had improved over the course of the pilot.
Operational officers were largely satisfied with the way the pilot had progressed. Their main recommendation, which was confirmed by other staff, was that consideration be given to the introduction of electronic ticketing machines. These should be suitable for all forms of tickets that officers have to issue, relieving them of the necessity of carrying a multiplicity of notebooks. The technical requirements associated with this idea are beyond the scope of this evaluation, but a number of officers felt that they could contribute ideas to aid its introduction.
10.5 Courts and Procurators Fiscal Service
The courts and Procurators Fiscal Service, generally expressed satisfaction with their experience of the pilot.
The expected reduction in numbers for very minor offences brought to trial was achieved. This has led to the police perception of their ability to deal with offences directly being improved. Those cases that were brought were not different from prior to the pilot in that they were no more complex and can be treated in the same way as other cases.
The Procurator Fiscal also said that there were no significant training issues, a minor awareness- raising- but not procedurally different, and no financial costs. The pilot also encouraged communication between the courts, the Procurator Fiscal and the police, helping reinforced what was there already.
10.6 Operational practice
There were relatively few changes to operational practice for backroom staff. The operational officers found the changes they experienced largely beneficial and the ability to deal with offences quickly and simply without having to return to a police station were useful.
10.7 Partnership working
All stakeholders felt that where their interaction with other partners had been affected by the introduction of the FPN pilot, that this had had a positive affect on the working relationships. In particular the IT issues involved in communicating between organisations had encouraged greater interaction between them which helped identify administrative issues and led to them being dealt with.
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