ECINS’ Heather Ette spoke with Sergeant Mick Thorpe, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire Constabulary

HE: How do you use ECINS to manage Organised Crime and Burglary?

MT: Currently we are using ECINS’ Reports and Cases sections to add incidents of burglaries and we link that to the mapping tool to visually show where the burglaries have taken place. Separately we have uploaded our known offenders and their mode of operandi and our colleagues in CID and Community Safety have uploaded images of footprints.

Using the mapping tool we can overlay the information to show where burglaries have taken place in relation to where the offenders live. Additionally we have uploaded information about offenders’ nodes onto ECINS, places they frequent, associates addresses etc.

What this gives us is localised information at the touch of a button.  Previously our officers would have needed in-depth knowledge of the suspects and offenders within a certain area.

Now, with ECINS if a burglary takes place we have everything we need at our fingertips to immediately send an officer to the most likely suspect’s home. This technology is making an enormous difference to the way we work, it has speeded up our processes and allows almost any of our officers to manage an incident that they would not have been able to have managed previously without history, experience and knowledge of a specific location.

Potentially, by using ECINS we can also use predictive mapping to essentially identify the most likely areas where burglaries will happen.  I have spoken with ECINS to develop this idea further and am really excited about the possibilities of using it in this way.

HE: What’s in the pipeline?

MT: The opportunities with ECINS really are endless.  I am delivering a presentation to the Police Foundation in March to talk about the ways we are using ECINS in Peterborough and my colleagues will be talking about Operation Pheasant and how ECINS is being utilised and making a difference in so many ways across Cambridgeshire.