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5 Running the Pilot
5.1 Aims and objectives
The overall aim of this evaluation is to review the progress made by Tayside Police in their use of FPNs in the twelve months between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2006.
Specific objectives are to:
Table 10
| 1. | Establish whether the pilot has achieved its objective of reducing the incidence of antisocial behaviour by acting as a deterrent to such behaviour. |
| 2. | Establish whether the pilot has achieved its objective of saving the Police and Courts time through the issuing of FPNs. |
| 3. | Identify and evaluate the effectiveness of the structures and processes through which the Tayside Police Project Board have implemented the pilot and measured performance. |
| 4. | Identify the nature and effectiveness of the links between Tayside Police and other Stakeholders in developing and implementing the pilot and any best practice lessons which result. |
| 5. | Examine the impact to date on the Force's ability to deliver policing services. |
| 6. | Identify any issues associated with the wider use of FPNs across Scotland after the end of the pilot (including IT issues). |
| 7. | Determine the costs involved in implementing and setting up the pilot. |
5.2 Development of Project Board
5.2.1 Pre-Pilot Activities
Tayside Police was advised in April 2004 that they had been selected to pilot the use of FPNs. A Project Board was formed with the following members.
Project Executive | Chief Superintendent Harkins |
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Operational Users | Superintendent Duncan,
Chief Inspector Bowman |
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Head of Finance | Ms Low |
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IT Development | Donna Sharp |
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Staff Development Unit | Inspector Knight |
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Quality Assurance | Chief Inspector Myles |
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Project Manager | Inspector G Gold |
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CTO Manager | Elaine Shaw |
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The project board also met with other stakeholders including
Records Office Manager | Pauline Cumming |
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Tayside Police | CS Murray, CS Hamilton & CS Alexander |
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Crown Office Edinburgh | Nicola Daly & Sara Evans |
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Area Procurator Fiscal Tayside | David Howdle |
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ACPOS | Sgt Greg Banks, Insp Steve Graham,
Insp Jane Murray. |
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PITO | Brian Shanks |
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Dundee District Court. | Nicola Brown |
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A Project Initiation Document was prepared and the main areas of pre-pilot activity were ticket design, procuring an IT system for administering the process, and integrating the fixed penalty process with the Force's existing case preparation system.
As similar powers were introduced in England and Wales in 2002 6, officers from Tayside Police visited West Midlands Police and Lancashire Constabulary, the original pilot sites in England and Wales, to study their processes and to gain an appreciation of the use of the ticket in various operational scenarios. For example, Forces in England and Wales require an offender to place a thumbprint on a copy of the ticket and officers carry inked pads for this purpose. There was no legal basis for this in Scotland and existing Police procedures in Scotland were considered by the Project Board to be sufficient. However, the ticket design and Standard Operating Procedure developed by Tayside Police for use in the pilot was informed by these visits.
Utilising the 'G-cat' approved procurement process, the Force purchased the NES (Northgate Enforcement System) from Northgate Information Solutions, this being the application used throughout England and Wales to manage ticket administration.
Tayside Police already had a fully ISCJIS7 compliant case preparation system. This was readily modified to allow officers to register a report with sufficient detail to satisfy the requirements of Part V of the Police Act (1997). This information is much less than even an abbreviated Standard Prosecution Report and the process is considerably shorter than the estimated 45 minutes to complete a standard report. The Project Board, working within the enabling legislation, sought to introduce a process that satisfied the legal requirement to record information, whilst being quick and easy for officers to use. A screenshot from SMART8 is shown below.
Figure 1 - Screenshot from SMART
The ticket 'failure rate' in England and Wales was found to be relatively high and in order to avoid this, the Force identified trainers in key areas of Tayside Police and used the Standard Operating Procedure to assist them in delivering 15 minutes of cascade training at daily briefings to each of the Force's 800 operational officers. This approach was validated by the subsequent low cancellation rate caused by officers making a mistake in ticket completion. The following comment is typical,
"overall, staff are very pleased with the system and process…easy to use and administer."
Operational Inspector, Montrose
5.2.2 Business Benefit Workshop.
There was also pre-pilot activity during this period to involve Stakeholders, not least being the Business Benefits Workshop. The Workshop helped clarify the basis for the pilot, gave focus on particular objectives, critical success factors, identified significant benefits, and noted some of the changes necessary for benefits to be realised. The Scottish Executive wanted FPNs for less serious disorder and antisocial offences to help free up police time and reduce some of the burden on the courts. This evaluation is intended to see if FPNs have delivered these benefits.
5.2.3 IT Procurement.
The project plan provided by Northgate identified which tasks were to be carried out by the Force for the implementation of the hardware. Garry Gold and Donna Sharp formed an IT Project Team with representatives from the Network, Desktop & Server, Systems Administration and IT Development sections within IT. There were weekly tasking meetings during the implementation phase to ensure that the appropriate work was undertaken to allow the installation of the server and client access to both the Force and Courts. Northgate carried out the installation of the NES software at the Courts after being supplied with appropriate contact details that were sourced from the IT team. The team continued to meet for a few weeks after the installation to provide initial support.
" IT Development's work was slightly different in that an in-house solution was developed to facilitate the update to SCRO of offenders and tickets. In addition an application for the Fine Registration transfer was developed in-house due to the NES Fine Registration export not being suitable for Scotland. Tayside already had a solution for the existing VP/ FPO (Traffic Ticket Processing) System and this was re-developed and enhanced to incorporate the NES Fine Registration extract. 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 modifications for new starts, name changes and location changes."
Donna Sharp
5.2.4 Training
The training of operational staff was accomplished largely through a cascade process. Identified trainers were provided with the necessary information to pass on during the daily briefings attended by operational officers. This was widely regarded as simple and straightforward. It required relatively little new information from an operational perspective, as many of the aspects were already familiar to officers in regard to other ticketing procedures.
Where officers reported that training was insufficient, this appears to be due to having received minimal or no training. They appear to have slipped through the net in terms of the formal training but generally indicated that they did not find it difficult to understand, and quickly became familiar with the process.
It was suggested by some of the people who have to deal with the tickets further along the process that more emphasis needs to be placed on officers appreciating the impact of inaccurate or poorly recorded information. The need for identity verification, and the requirement of sufficiency of evidence should a court case arise, were also mentioned as points of which officers should be aware. Regular reinforcement of these aspects needs to be maintained, in order to ensure that high standards are continued.
In the event of a national rollout of FPNs, it is expected that training will be provided for new officers, at the Scottish Police College. Any additional training should be given to officers as part of their daily briefing.
5.2.5 On-going stakeholder engagement.
Frequency and Method of Communication
- Communication Guidelines as described in the PID. 9
Communication within the Project
Communication is defined according to the PRINCE2 methodology as summarised below.
- Highlight reports will be produced and circulated.
- Project Board meetings will take place regularly.
- Regular meetings will be held with the suppliers.
The frequency and content of these meetings will be according to the progress of the Project and recorded.
External Communication
- Simple and brief communications will begin as soon as possible in order to counteract any rumour already circulating within the Force.
- Communications will be relevant in their content and linked to such key developments as, award of contract, testing, training, estimated implementation dates, and 'go live'.
However, it is equally important to accept that the Project needs to be flexible and respond to levels of interest displayed by the Force and other external stakeholders.
The key methods of communication are defined below:
- Project information will be produced and circulated regularly by the Project Manager by the most appropriate method of communication.
- The Project will submit a number of brief articles by e-mail and the Force Intranet.
It is anticipated also that a number of other methods will be employed to assist with communication, for example;
- Presentations to divisions and specific groups of users
- Publication of fax and mailbox numbers for queries
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