ECINS spoke to PC David McIlwhan from Fenland NPT about the benefits of using ECINS for problem solving:

‘We have used ECINS in Cambridgeshire for a number of years now. I am the ECINS Team Administrator for Fenland NPT and also use the system when out on patrol.

We mainly use ECINS for our Problem-Solving Groups, to share information with our partners which consists of Housing Associations, Drug and Alcohol Support Workers, Social Services, the local Council, Fire and Rescue and Mental Health Services.  The majority of our partners have access to ECINS and together with our Officers will upload updates on to E-CINS even when working remotely.

I usually research places and premises on ECINS before I go out on a visit but if I come across a problem area, or I need to find out more information quickly I often use ECINS on my mobile phone. I can log in to the system and get the information I need, in realtime, when out and about.

Everyone within the Neighbourhood Team is an ECINS practitioner and my responsibility as Team Administrator is to make sure all the users are appropriate and current.  I attend the ECINS Governance Meetings every one or two months which is attended by all the ECINS SPOCS in the area.

ECINS has proved very useful in helping us identify individuals and share information with other teams.  We have used ECINS when we have known of a perpetrator of a crime but had not actually arrested them yet.   The individual had come to our attention following an ASB incident and we shared the information with another team so that they could arrest him for a different offence.”