Locard product information

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 1 March 2002

75

Citation

(2002), "Locard product information", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 11 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2002.07311aab.008

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited


Locard product information

Locard product information

Locard offers any UK police force a unique, networked, evidence tracking and management system that delivers significantly faster results than anything else currently available on the market. It will become a cornerstone for intelligence-led policing.

Advantage's Locard product delivers total accountability of all exhibits from scene of crime to court. An investigating officer can now:

  • track any exhibit;

  • monitor its progress through all forensic investigation departments;

  • create statements and collate; and documentation for court.

Once the piece of evidence is tagged with a barcode and bagged, Locard logs its journey, recording every movement, giving it a cast-iron audit trail right through to court. Every time the exhibit is moved – to run a test, in or out of storage – the barcode is swiped and Locard automatically captures the details of the item and adds the new information to its computerised audit trail.

Locard has been designed by Advantage to be a multi-functional tool – but the most significant benefits to a police force come from the management of information and intelligence. The system allows all information from scenes of crime to be added automatically to Locard's extensive data warehouse. A user can simply and easily exploit these data for crime-trend analysis and the linking of crimes and suspects against any of the data held.

All transactions and tests recorded in Locard can be allocated a cost. This provides full financial visibility across all departments, offering instant access to costs per item of evidence, per crime scene or per department. Locard will generate standard reports automatically, or allow bespoke reports to be created in seconds.

With manual systems, the time taken to assemble statistical information for local and regional police use as well, as for the UK's Home Office, can be enormous. Already Locard has shown itself capable of saving many man-hours a month in this activity alone – with obvious implications on resources and expenditure.

In developing Locard, Advantage has rigorously followed the requirements of National Standard for Police Information Systems (NSPIS). It is a modern, innovative system to which any police force in the UK can subscribe. Above all, it provides a flexible, robust, proven, state-of-the-art evidence tracking system to support forensic investigation over the next decade.

The Locard software system (named after the nineteenth-century founder of forensic science) was developed by Advantage System Solutions to achieve dramatic results in helping to solve crimes by radically improving the tracking of forensic evidence from crime to court. Locard will eliminate thousands of man-hours in repetitious paperwork and the preparation of statistics and reports. It heralds a significant step-change in the overall performance of all those working in forensic investigation.

Locard can do much more than log exhibit movements. Using Locard, the investigating officer can call up on the screen whatever information is needed, with whatever links he/she wants flagged up, all at the touch of a button. The officer can pinpoint in minutes matches from fingerprints, DNA or any aspect of an MO or crime pattern, and potentially solve many more crimes inside those critical first few hours.

Using rugged, hand-held computers, Locard can also be mobilised for SOCOs, allowing the rapid transfer of crime information directly from the scene to HQ.

Locard creates a direct and immediate link to all the forensic investigation departments, providing officers with up to the second information on the status of any exhibit. For the first time, Locard now provides one single data warehouse to the forensic community from which vital force-wide intelligence will be delivered.

Locard was developed in full consultation with five UK police forces, and fully reflects the pressing needs of the police forensic community for a system that provides single data entry, speeds up the whole process of evidence tracking and puts information and intelligence into the hands of those who need it quickly and efficiently.

Kent Police, in partnership with Advantage System Solutions, went live in July this year with a complete HQ-based Locard system. Jim Fraser, Head of Forensic Investigation for Kent County Constabulary, said: "For the first time the forensic investigation department has a single integrated system for managing all aspects of our business. In addition to evidence tracking, Locard will provide excellent management information leading to better understanding of business processes and ultimately increases in productivity. Harnessed properly, the potential of Locard is enormous."

For further information contact: Mike Carding. Tel: +44 (0) 2392 324 528.

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