CrimInt
 CrimInt  (criminal, intelligence, database)   | |
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| The Met's database on thousands of protesters |
CrimInt is a criminal intelligence database run by the Metropolitan Police Service of Greater London which stores information on criminals, suspected criminals and protesters. It was created in 1994 and supplied by Memex Technology Limited based on their 'Patriarch' technology. It supports the recording and searching of items of intelligence by both police officers and back office staff. As of 2005 it contained seven million information reports and 250,000 intelligence records.[1]
Data protection
People are able to request their information from the database under data protection laws. Requests have shown that the database holds large amounts of information on protesters who have not committed any crimes which is to be expected as the database is an intelligence database, not a crime recording system. Information is stored for at least seven years. Holding information on people who have never committed any offence may be against people's human rights.[2] A police officer, Amerdeep Johal, allegedly used the database to contact sex offenders and threatened to disclose information about them from the database unless they paid him thousands of pounds.[3]
The Bill
CrimInt, like many systems used by the Metropolitan Police was provided to Thames Television for use in The Bill crime series. This originally consisted of a Windows 3.11 setup with a local database with reports created for a variety of uses. Each terminal had a Memex server and client software installed and handled locally.
As time went on this became screen captures of CrimInt from the previous setup edited in PowerPoint. This was noticeable on screen with the PowerPoint next/previous buttons appearing in the bottom right of the screen. CrimInt itself underwent numerous upgrades in its lifespan - the version used on The Bill dated from 1994 and was used until the end of the series in 2010, despite the system in real life having a massively different user interface at the time.
Example
This is a copy of the CrimInt report used in episode 381 of The Bill, reporting Leanne Brown. (Colons represent text boxes.) This report size has been edited to fit page.
Log U.R.N: 10150 I00008087/2001 Created:
Division: CANLEY Source: A
Sub: CORE B.SO
Station: SUN HILL
Source: PC456SO HAMILTON
Officer Source: PC456SO HAMILTON
Process: C34523456 DAVID GREGORY
Event Date:
Subject: ARREST/DETENTION LEANNE BROWN POSSESION OF DRUGS
Report: LEANNE BROWN - PNCID 02/987328K Was arrested after Police raided in Canley. Was found to be in possesion of Class C and Class A drugs. Charged and bailed to Canley Magistrates Court. 27/06/2001.[4]
References
This page imported content from Wikipedia on 3 August 2025.Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks. Original page source here
