Neighbourhood Police Officer Jimmy Upton of Sussex Police spoke to ECINS about his work in Chichester City Centre working with rough sleepers and the street community

My day to day role is policing the city centre of Chichester – dealing with on-going problems, looking to reduce and detect crime through multi agency partnership working. In February 2013 we received ECINS training with a view to using the system for ASB management. The flexibility and ease of use of the system made me consider it an ideal system to use for street community to be able to have an easily accessible gallery of current street community to discuss in multi agency meetings.

We started using the system to this effect straightaway which was fantastic.

Using ECINS for street community was an obvious step forward – we hold a monthly street community meeting with Chichester District Council and partners including housing, community safety, Stone Pillow – A local homeless charity – and AdAction where we can discuss current cases in Chichester in an easily accessible and viewable format via ECINS.

I use ECINS only once or twice a week with a view to maintaining the relevance and keeping it up to date. Before we used ECINS the monthly meeting used an Excel spreadsheet which was wordy and with no photos.

Having access to photos makes the subject individuals more recognisable and relevant.

I would not hesitate to say that ECINS has improved the service we provide on the street community. Personally I find the system very easy and logical to use and it has not been a chore to assimilate into my working practices.