Police Sergeant Justin Howard uses ECINS in Peterborough South NPT to store and record information and to collaborate with partners.
Justin said “I already had some experience of ECINS as I used it to collaborate and manage issues around Sex Workers in Peterborough a few years ago. We used it primarily to collate information about where we would see the Sex Workers that were quite clearly vulnerable and working in the sex trade so that we could share information with the City Council to put safeguards and support plans in place for them.
“Since joining the NPT I have championed ECINS’ many benefits and we are working to bring Response and CID on board to utilise it too. It is a really effective tool in terms of finding out about people and their potential risks or vulnerabilities and also in providing effective background information about addresses we are to visit.
“As a Response Officer it is useful to have more than just the information recorded on an incident log, particularly for issues such as neighbourhood disputes. Having access to risk assessments that might have been created and getting to know the full context of the dispute is very valuable.
“Predominantly we use ECINS for problem solving and we put OSARA plans onto ECINS. OSARA plans are used by the police to problem solve issues from neighbourhood disputes to shoplifting and criminal matters. These plans can be impacted on, not only by the police, but all our stakeholders including the Council and Fire Service, if required. ECINS is a really effective tool for this as it allows us to work with a range of people and for us all to flag up or generate tasks such as arranging visits.
“We are in the process of signing up all of the schools to ECINS. Our Safer Schools Officers use it for obtaining further information about individuals and issues surrounding their families. Frontline officers use it too.
“We are keen to rollout the use of ECINS to other areas, wherever relevant, as it provides so many opportunities for better partnership working such as making it available for Councillors to access certain information that they may want to share with the community to help them to understand specific problems. We will also be using it for Unlawful Encampments to store and record information about families.
“We have a monthly ASB meeting with the Council where we discuss addresses in the Northern, Southern and Eastern Sections of Neighbourhood Teams where there is a live ECINS case. Safeguarding, Housing and Enforcement Officers are involved in these meetings so that they can try to understand how to best combat issues and problems. We access ECINS live on a laptop in the City Council Office and go through each active case looking at which agencies have carried out actions and interventions. It’s a really good and effective way of working as we can put the wheels in motion as to who will take new actions forward.
“There are still leaps forward that we can make with ECINS for partnership working. We are disseminating information sharing agreements to ensure the right protocols are in place in terms of who has access to view certain information and who does not.”
