London police switch on to Jasmine

London's Metropolitan Police has chosen Jasmine, the information infrastructure system from Computer Associates (CA) to run its database of images of criminals.

The deal forms part of the 'digitally driven policing' initiative, which allows the UK's largest police force to share information located on a central server at New Scotland Yard.

George Kafkarkou, VP of information management solutions, Europe at CA, explained that in the past, pictures would be taken of a suspect and sent to the Home Office laboratories, to be returned seven days later. Police officers would then need to plough through filing cabinets looking for matching photographs.

Now, the Met's 27,000 police officers can access the Custody Suite Imaging System. Apart from saving time, the information can now be shared, with pictures and profiles of individuals accessed through a standard Web browser.

Kafkarkou said: "What Jasmine does is allow the officers to get to the relevant information within three seconds of it being recorded."

The first phase of the rollout has taken place in ten stations across London. The second phase, due to start at the end of the summer, will see the use of laptops so that victims who are unable to make it to the local station can have details brought to them.

CA is currently speaking to other police forces with a view to rolling out a similar system.