Tools that help police solve crimes are now available on Microsoft Azure
An analytics tool that lets police officers quickly piece together crucial information so they can solve crimes has been made available to all forces on Microsoft’s cloud platform.
Chorus Intelligence, a data analytics company that works with the majority of police forces and all the counter-terrorism units in the UK, has announced that its Analyser and Investigator solutions can now be accessed via Microsoft Azure.
Analyser lets Intelligence Analysts manage millions of pieces of information, such as call records and device downloads, and help them spot patterns and sequences in events.
Investigator helps officers easily see the most important parts of a case, such as what happened, when and where, so they can quickly develop lines of enquiry.
Chorus believe that placing these programs on Azure will help police forces benefit from the power of the cloud while saving them time and money, regardless of how complex their investigation is, as they will only be paying for what they need.
A spokesperson at Microsoft, said: “Microsoft Azure helps Chorus Intelligence deploy solutions that enable law enforcement to focus more on solving crime and less on managing servers. Chorus’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions allow police customers to take advantage of the flexibility and enterprise-grade reliability that Azure provides. All too often UK forces struggle to adopt improved operational services due to their legacy technology stack, and the SaaS delivery method from Chorus, which has been approved by those in the Police ICT Company, provides the speed to service which policing requires in order to counter today’s threats.
“We are excited to see companies like Chorus Intelligence add value by integrating its solutions with Azure, where future enhanced capability can be quickly tested and deployed into operational use.”
Police can securely store and access their data in Microsoft’s cloud after the UK’s National Police Information Risk Management Team reviewed its data centres.
Boyd Mulvey, Chief Executive of Chorus, said: “We are pleased to offer Chorus in the cloud with Microsoft Azure, allowing law enforcement to embrace ‘cloud-first’ principles so they can cut costs and help investigators to work more securely, efficiently and collaboratively.
“After reviewing all potential cloud partners, it became clear that Microsoft Azure was the right cloud solution for Chorus and our customers. From county lines crime to missing persons, crime does not stay within force boundaries. We wholeheartedly believe that data and intelligence must travel securely with the case in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the investigation – and wider utilisation of the cloud to share data and analysis will provide the means to do that.”