Software rollout failure led to Devon & Cornwall cops recording zero crime for 3 months

From theregister.com

UPDATED It is a sleepy corner of the United Kingdom, but even the southwest peninsula is likely not a place where there is no crime whatsoever for a whole quarter.

Well, maybe it is a crime-free paradise, and maybe it isn’t, because a failure in the implementation of a new computer system has meant Devon & Cornwall Police registered no offences committed with the nation’s official data collection agency, the Office for National Statistics.

In the ONS’s official release of crime data, it noted that: “Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon & Cornwall Police have been unable to supply data for the quarter, October 2022 to December 2022.”

In May 2020, the police force — which oversees a 150-mile (241km) stretch of the southwest peninsula of England — signed a contract with Canada’s Niche Technology to use NicheRMS, a police intelligence platform.

At the time, assistant chief constable Jim Colwell said: “The ability to easily access and share information across county boundaries is crucial for us to identify threat, risk and harm and bring offenders to justice.”

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