25 th May 2004 - The Kent County Council Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) have launched a new project across Kent and Medway today, providing partner and public access to crime and disorder data integrated from local government agencies, police, fire and ambulance services.  

The goal of the Kent Crime and Disorder Data Information Exchange (KENTCADDIE) www.kentcaddie.org.uk, is to improve community safety across the county and have a positive effect on the public's perception of crime.  

KENTCADDIE is a tool that will enable the authorities to better allocate the finite resources available. Analysis from the data sharing initiative will enable the emergency services to spot area trends, such as vehicle crash and burglary hot spots and take appropriate action. This will help facilitate evidence-based crime prevention by clearly indicating cause and effect, as trends can be measured by the temporal and spatial aspects of the system.

Kent residents are provided with timely and accurate information about crime, anti-social behaviour and other community safety-based issues in their area via KENTCADDIE. The information is taken directly from Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and Kent Ambulance Service records and is then displayed on maps and in tabular form using an intuitive system. Over the coming months, more data sets will be added - such as from the Youth Offending Service - to make this the most comprehensive facility of its kind in the county.

KENTCADDIE will also enable the council to make more informed decisions when allocating funding, by highlighting key problem areas within the county. The goal is to use technology to deliver services more effectively, efficiently and economically.

"KENTCADDIE can be seen as an extension of the partnership-based, intelligence-led crime prevention approach which is propounded in Kent. Not only is it anticipated that it will allow partners to better allocate resources to those areas that need it most, it will also allow the Kent public, for the first time, to see and interact with accurate and timely information from a multitude of agencies all in the same place. This will help combat the common perceptions that crime levels are much higher than they are in reality, which should in turn lead to reassuring local residents. It will also put people in touch with advice and information that will help improve their quality of life," commented Sarah Hohler, Kent County Councillor, Cabinet Member for Community Services.

"Infoshare has been key in the delivery of KENTCADDIE. Its OmniData software has enabled us to not only share sensitive data whilst meeting the requirements of the Data Protection Act but also improve the reliability and quality of the data that our partners have provided us with. In addition, Infoshare offers us the flexibility to be able to add new data sets to the existing project, from multiple sources. This supports the vision of a multi-agency data and information exchange network across the whole of the county," explains Nick Moon, Joint Project Manager, KENTCADDIE.

KENTCADDIE will allow the local community to obtain details of projects that are underway in the local area, take part in questionnaires on projects taking place, find help and advice on community safety issues.

About Infoshare:

Infoshare has worked with over 150 crime and disorder reduction partnerships in the UK enabling effective data sharing across multiple public sector agencies.

Infoshare has created a unique privacy enhancing technology that enables safe and legal data exchange under the constraints of current legislation. OmniData provides automated data exchange and Universal Config delivers ongoing data cleansing and matching needs.

Data driven management is a powerful tool in the fight against crime and disorder.   Accurate knowledge needs hard, validated evidence. Partnerships do not function effectively if their actions are not underpinned by evidence-based decision making, using validated and sanitised data of the highest quality.

Infoshare's prototype model is fully eGovernment compliant and adheres to all national and international data standards.

For further information please contact:

Adrian McKeon, Business Development, Infoshare Ltd.
Tel: 0208 541 0111
Email: adrian.mckeon@infoshare-is.com