Major software issue occurred in PSNI emergency call system
A “major issue” with the ControlWorks software used by police to monitor emergency calls led to a delay in officers receiving critical information during a fast-moving investigation, Computer Weekly has learned.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) uses ControlWorks as part of its command and control system. The software is primarily used for managing, logging and categorising calls received by the emergency services from the public.
Sources have confirmed that a “major issue” with ControlWorks in 2020 meant information was not passed on to an inquiry team in a fast-moving investigation until the day after it was received.
A PSNI ControlWorks operator indicated to frontline officers that alerts on the system related to the investigation could be lost or delayed, Computer Weekly has been told.
Later, a senior officer in the case confirmed that a crucial tip-off in the fast-moving police inquiry was delayed because of an issue with ControlWorks.
The PSNI told Computer Weekly that there had been no incidents with ControlWorks that had led to loss of data, and that if there were issues, any delays to police response time would be minimal.
It is understood that the PSNI keeps records of incidents with ControlWorks and refers any serious incidents to its supplier for investigation.
ControlWorks aims to improve response times
The ControlWorks suite includes computer-aided dispatch and customer relationship management capabilities, which are designed to improve response times by speeding up decision-making for call handlers.
The PSNI announced that it was using Capita Communications and Control Solutions’ ControlWorks software in 2018, replacing its 20-year-old Capita Atlas Command and Control System, which had reached the end of its life.
From February 2018, ControlWorks was installed across the PSNI’s three regional contact management centres. The contract was for an initial seven-year term, with options to extend it by up to a decade. The current contract renewal date is 30 September 2028.
ControlWorks, which is used by senior commanders and call handlers, was launched by Capita in 2013. One of its selling points was that it offered auditable logs for greater accountability and better resilience.
After investing heavily in the software, Capita sold its Secure Solutions and Services business, which included ControlWorks and other emergency services software, to NEC Software Solutions UK for £62m. After a long review by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the sale was completed in 2023.
ControlWorks’ use by police
ControlWorks is used by a number of police forces in the UK, including Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Derbyshire, South Wales, the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police.
An independent review in 2020 found serious problems with Greater Manchester Police’s Capita-supplied iOPS IT system, which attempted to integrate ControlWorks with Capita’s PoliceWorks record management software used by police officers for managing day-to-day investigations and intelligence records.
“Even when staff have received training, users reported that searches on ControlWorks and PoliceWorks sometimes returned inconsistent or incorrect information about risks,” the review found.
Greater Manchester Police subsequently announced plans to replace PoliceWorks, a process that is expected to be completed next year, after concluding it could not be adapted or fixed to meet the needs of the organisation. It has continued to use ControlWorks.
How ControlWorks errors are categorised
According to freedom of information requests to West Midlands Police, incidents in ControlWorks are categorised depending on their level of severity.
Critical incidents, which affect force-wide availability of ControlWorks, are categorised as P1 and must be corrected within six hours by the force’s IT suppliers.
A force-wide degradation in the service offered by ControlWorks is categorised as P2 and must be resolved in eight hours.
Less serious incidents are categorised as P3, which must be resolved by the force’s supplier in 24 hours, and P4, which do not require urgent remediation.
PSNI: No major disruption
The PSNI said there had been no major disruption to ControlWorks.
“Police can confirm that, to date, there has been no instance of major disruption which has led to data loss as there is significant resilience built into the application, servers and infrastructure,” a spokesperson said.
“If a fault was to occur with ControlWorks, it would be dealt with internally by trained colleagues who also have resilience in place to ensure that in the event of an error, a delay in police response time would be minimal,” the spokesperson added.
The Northern Ireland Policing Board, which oversees the PSNI, said it had not received any reports from the PSNI about errors in ControlWorks.
A spokesperson said that if a major system disruption or significant information or data loss occurred, the board would expect to be informed.
The PSNI has made no reference to the issue with ControlWorks in its annual reports.
NEC, which completed the purchase of ControlWorks from Capita in August 2023, said it had not been made aware of any major issues relating to ControlWorks since it acquired the business.
“We work closely with police forces and other agencies to ensure it is reliable and secure, and have not been made aware of any major issues related to ControlWorks since we acquired the business in 2023,” it said.
A spokesperson for Capita, which originally supplied ControlWorks to the PSNI, said: “Because this is a business we sold several years ago, we can’t comment.”
