Editing HOLMES 2 (section)

==History of development==
===HOLMES===
HOLMES was introduced in 1985 and enabled [[law enforcement agency|law enforcement agencies]] to improve effectiveness and productivity in crime investigations. Like the later HOLMES 2, it was an administrative support system that was primarily designed to assist [[Criminal investigation department#United_Kingdom|senior investigation officer]]s in their management of the complexity of investigating serious crime. To this end, HOLMES carefully processed the mass of information it was provided with and ensured that no vital clues were overlooked.

HOLMES was also used to support the Police UK Casualty Bureau providing facilities to record reported missing persons, casualties, survivors and evacuees.  The application provides matching facilities to aid the reconciliation of missing persons with those involved in the incident.

But the system had crucial weaknesses, too. It provided very little support to the investigation of the crime ''[[wikt:per se|per se]]'' and had only very limited opportunities to link separate incidents, especially across police force boundaries. What was needed was a solution that allowed an increased amount of information exchange combined with better use of the information.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.holmes2.com/holmes2/whatish2/ |title=Home Office Large Major Enquiry System |publisher=HOLMES 2 |date= |accessdate=2013-09-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429035701/http://www.holmes2.com/holmes2/whatish2/ |archive-date=2017-04-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the summer of 1987 HOLMES was used in conjunction with a West Midlands Police undercover operation known as Operation GROWTH as an aid for undercover police officers who had infiltrated a notorious gang of football hooligans known as The Bridge Boys who followed [[Wolverhampton Wanderers]]. Previous trials of football hooligans had collapsed due to the way undercover police gathered evidence while on the job. Any evidence gathered during GROWTH was collated straight to HOLMES which in turn secured successful convictions in December 1988.