HOLMES 2 System Administration

Through HOLMES 2 System Administration, an incident can be configured such that access is restricted to:

– specified users

– specified terminals

A user may also have different access rights for different incidents, through the use of “roles”.

An additional level of security allows incidents with sensitive information to be maintained separately from other incidents.

A99

B45

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Action Management (1)

Actions are raised to carry out tasks as a result of a line of enquiry, or to seek further information related to the contents of any document entering the Incident Room.

Within HOLMES 2, an Action Management function is used to progress Actions through a series of states (or “queues”):

– for allocation

– allocated

– completed

– resulted

– filed

Action Management (2)

HOLMES 2 also provides a graphical representation to assist in the assessment of work outstanding, staffing levels, and bottlenecks.

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HOLMES 2 Documents

Many different types of Document are required during an investigation. Document types include:

– House to House Questionnaires

– Messages

– PDFs

– Reports

– Statements

Each Document is created from a template which contains fields for the entry of pre-formatted header information, as well as the main body of the text.

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Information Databases (1)

Every item that comes to the attention of the investigation is typed into a Document.

The Document is then registered with a unique reference number, and filed in a document database.

In addition, the text in the document is added to a separate, free-text database for free text searching.

The important items of information are also identified and added to an indexed database, so that they can be quickly retrieved.

S1

M1

R1

DOCUMENTS

words

words

words

words

words

FREE-TEXT

Nominals

~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vehicles

~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

INDEXED

Information Databases (2)

There are various Indexes in the index database, such as a Nominal Index and a Location Index.

There is also the facility to create special indexes for particular Incidents, where specific object types may be of interest. For example, an index of Mini-cab firms may be created if these are significant to an investigation.

The important thing is to ensure that all relevant items are indexed. Who knows what may be important later?

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Document Management

Since Documents are the key source of HOLMES 2 information, it is important that they are processed as effectively as possible. Hence a Document Management function monitors the flow of Documents around the Incident Room in a similar way to Action Management.

Documents are progressed through a series of queues, from registration and typing, through proof reading, to final approval. Bottlenecks can be identified, and resource allocated where required.

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Registration

Typing Proof Reading

Exhibit Management

Most investigations involve related physical evidence in the form of Exhibits. These may be required by various officers during the course of the investigation.

An Exhibit Officer takes responsibility for the movement of all Exhibits connected to the incident. HOLMES 2 assists by maintaining a full movement history for each Exhibit.

An audit trail can be produced to verify the integrity of the exhibit, or to track its whereabouts at any time.

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