UK: National Criminal Intelligence System
01 March 1992
On 1 April 1992 the National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS) will begin operations. It will provide centralised intelligence on serious crime and criminals to police forces in the UK and provide the central point for the exchange of intelligence with other EC police centres.
A number of internal reports had recommended the creation of a national information or intelligence function for the police - the Baumber report (1975), the Pearce report (1978) and the Radcliffe report (1986). The impetus to actually create a national intelligence system came out of the Trevi Group meeting and the development of the European police organisation (Europol). In 1989 Mr Dickens, Executive Co-ordinator of the Regional Crime Squads, was asked to prepare a report in the light of: "the increasing sophistication of criminal behaviour and the likelihood that this would increase further following the relaxation of controls on movement in 1992'. In July 1990 the Association of Chief Police Officers approved a working party report.
The creation of NCIS involves the transfer of central units currently based at London's Metropolitan Police HQ to the NCIS and the reduction of the nine Regional Crime Squads (RCS) to five. The Regional Crime Intelligence Offices (part of the RCSs) will be form a network under the national control of NCIS.
The NCIS will include the following units: National Drugs Intelligence Unit (NDIU); National Football Intelligence Unit (NFIU); Interpol (ICPO); Regional Crime Intelligence Offices; Public Sector Corruption Unit; Product Contamination Index; Support and co-ordination of undercover police officers; Resident Informants; Stolen Motor Vehicle Squad; Arts and Antiques Squad; National Office for the Suppression of Counterfeit Currency Commercial Fraud Index & Commercial Fraud Squad; National Paedophile Index; Criminal Intelligence Special Intelligence Section; and Regional Crime Squad no 9.
The Director of NCIS is Mr A Mullett, former Chief Constable of West Mercia. Two of the deputy directors are Mr Neil Dickens, executive co-ordinator of the RCSs and Mr Simon Crawshaw, who is Deputy Director (Designate) of Intelligence. It will have 450 staff.
The number of Regional Crime Squads (RCSs) will be reduced from 9 to 5 and the new regional offices of the NCIS will be based in London, Manchester, Wakefield, Bristol or Cardiff and Birmingham. The NCIS will appoint field intelligence officers to liaise with the RCSs and local forces.
Intelligence-gathering
The NCIS will develop the National Intelligence Computer System (NICS) and it will eventually be linked to every police force headquarters and every police station in the UK. However, the NICS will not be operational until 1994. It is thought that the NICS will be linked to the PNC2 and this is likely as NICS will replace the crime pattern analysis facility currently offered by the PNC. Phase two of the system will enable it to send and receive photographs and fingerprints.
The NCIS will gather together "intelligence" which will be a combination of fact and suspicions. One of its sources will be intelligence forwarded by local police forces who will provide witness statements, interrogation of suspects notes, the results of surveillance and reports from informants.
The NCIS will itself gather intelligence from liaison officers posted overseas (there are 30 drugs liaison officers - police and customs officers - in more than 19 countries); all disclosures made under the Drug Trafficking Offences Criminal Justice and Prevention of Terrorism Act, to investigate them and them pass on the results to the police or Customs and Excise (including money- laundering); EC police intelligence agencies; Interpol; the Schengen Information System; and UK embassies and missions abroad.
Accountability
The development of the NCIS took place between the Home Office and ACPO without any open discussion and was well advanced before it beca