Song to the SIREN

Siren police IT project's £15m failure a 'debacle'

Surrey's police and crime commissioner has called for one of Britain's most senior police officers to be held to account for the failure of a multi-million pound computer project.
A report into the £15m system to log crime information found oversight of the project was "not fit for purpose".

Surrey PCC Kevin Hurley said Mark Rowley - chief constable at the time - should take responsibility.

But Assistant Commissioner Rowley, who is now at the Met, defended his role.
The Surrey Integrated Reporting Enterprise Network (Siren) was commissioned by Surrey Police in 2009 but was abandoned last year.

The report, by auditors Grant Thornton, said it was was an "ambitious project that was beyond the in-house capabilities and experience" of the police force and police authority.
Mr Hurley said: "Mr Rowley is no longer employed in Surrey, but if he were I would as PCC be considering how best to hold him to account.

He is now employed by the Metropolitan Police Service. I will be writing to the Mayor for London Boris Johnson and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to take action as they see appropriate."

Siren was specifically designed to log crimes and store intelligence on criminals and suspects.

But Mr Hurley scrapped the project after the force concluded that it did not represent the "best long-term option for the force and the public".

Mr Rowley said he noted there were "no criticisms of individuals or their conduct" in the report but said he agreed with its recommendations.

"I'm sure that all those involved in leading this project as officers or from the Surrey Police Authority share with me regret and disappointment that Siren did not realise the benefits for the public we sought," he added.

The force spent £14.8m on the project from its inception to 31 March 2013. The money was spent on staff costs, training, software, technology and consultancy.

This is news to me but it explains a lot about why they are still running legacy software including ours.