September 30, 1999

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Incis failure hinders police

Katherine Hoby

An Incis computer software glitch caused headaches for Christchurch police from top-ranking officers to those on the beat over much of Tuesday and yesterday morning.

The multimillion-dollar computer refused to let officers log on to the system, which contains thousands of offender files.

Police information technology general manager Jeffrey Soar said the controversial system was inaccessible to many police nationwide for most of Tuesday.

"We had a significant failure in the security system that manages log-on profiles for authorised users," he said.

"This developed a glitch which meant it prevented people who were authorised from being able to log in."

The computer, claimed to improve policing, is three years behind schedule. Computer giant IBM withdrew from the project this year, prompting the Government to sue the company. It is seeking over $3m for damages, interest, and court costs.

The customer services manager of the Christchurch central police station, Graham Duncan, said he was already logged on to the Incis system on Tuesday when the failure occurred.

"I had no problem personally but I have heard it affected people from one of the senior training officers to frontline cops," he said. Hundreds of staff would have been affected.

He said those working on the early shift had to remain logged on to the system so that those on night duties could work on the computer system.

"It did create some minor hiccups but it has been a system that has been frustrating me since its inception," he said.

"In fact there are several occasions when I would have gladly thrown it through my office window, but for the double glazing."

Mr Duncan said Incis had been an ongoing chapter of errors. It had been promised to save frontline staff time but was the opposite, because of all its problems.

"If you find me a computer that can help people out or run down the road and catch a criminal then I will say it will save us time," he said. "Without human input it's nothing."

He said it was extremely frustrating to work with equipment that was obviously sub-standard.

The chairman of the Christchurch Police Association, Mike Wall, said there was a lot of vital information officers could not get to during the glitch.

"It is extremely frustrating in this computer age that we cannot access files," he said.

Mr Wall said that to the average policeman on the street the computer system Incis replaced was "more than satisfactory".

"We are taught to really rely on it and then when it's not there, where are we left?"

Labour's police spokesman George Hawkins said stage one of Incis had none of the "bells and whistles that police were promised".

http://www.press.co.nz/1999/39/990930l03.htm

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 30, 1999

Answers

Aha. Another step toward the totally secure system...that lets no user log in...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 30, 1999.

* * * 19990930 Thursday

Mad Monk: ROFLMAO!!!

Pretty soon the global systems will be well secured. Won't be able to access info anywhere for anything.

Back to the future: Circa 1900!!

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), September 30, 1999.

Homer, you should let people know what country your news items come from. I happen to know this one's from New Zealand, because I'm a proud honorary Kiwi. but a lot of people wouldn't know.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), September 30, 1999.