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Hummingbird' silenced as police software flops
FAILING software designed to ensure the public access to police information has been scrapped.
Hampshire police agreed to buy the software produced by Hummingbird to help respond to Freedom of Information requests.
It was hoped the 47,000 product would help staff get to information available under the Freedom of Information Act more easily – ensuring the public better access to information they have a right to know.
But since the software was installed it has failed to work.
Now the force is to get back the 33,000 it had already paid for the software.
That was 70 per cent of the software's total cost that it had forked out so far. It comes after The News reported that Hampshire police's acting director of IT and communications services, Stephen Vercella, had told a meeting of the IT and information systems strategy committee of Hampshire Police Authority – the organisation holding the force's purse strings – that it was threatening to return the product because the application had not worked since the time it was delivered.
The force issued a notice to the supplier that unless it made the application work it would not accept the product.
Police bosses must now decide if they want to look for different software that will aid the processing of Freedom of Information Act requests.
A hard drive bought by the force to accommodate the program will now be given an alternative use.
The Freedom of Information Act gives individuals or organisations the right to information from a public authority unless it is exempt – for example, if its release would prejudice the security of the country.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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