Editing HOLMES 2

{{Short description|Database of the United Kingdom government for major crimes}}
'''HOLMES 2''' ('''Home Office Large Major Enquiry System''') is an [[information technology]] system that is predominantly used by [[United Kingdom|UK]] police forces for the investigation of major incidents such as serial murders and high value [[fraud]]s. 

The system is a single [[application software|application]] which was developed by [[Unisys]] and [[Microdata Corporation|McDonnell Douglas Information Systems]] (in competition, not co-operation) for the [[Police Information Technology Organisation]] under a [[private finance initiative]]. It provides total compatibility and consistency between all the police forces of [[England]], [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], and [[Northern Ireland]], as well as the [[Royal Military Police]]. The name of the system is a reference to the fictional [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] private detective character [[Sherlock Holmes]].

==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.

==Replacement==
Against this background, the British police forces started a plan to replace the existing system with a new, improved version in 1994. The new version, HOLMES 2, overcame the known weaknesses of HOLMES. Additionally, it is more flexible for future changes and provides a speedier and more efficient access to information. The system was finally released to the first forces in 2000, while the last forces became operational in early 2004.

==Applications==
As mentioned above, HOLMES 2's most important function is the one as a crime investigation tool. For this purpose, it is based on an organised and methodical approach, whose [[structure]] concentrates on the [[major incident room]] (MIR). This is the administrative centre where further investigation actions are coordinated and all the information from members of the public, enquiry officers and other sources is gathered. With the help of input masks, HOLMES 2 is provided with the relevant information and used by the senior investigating officer to direct and control the course of the enquiry. In this respect, the system uses a combination of [[commercial off-the-shelf]] (COTS) components and purpose-built software to provide the most cost-effective system for the police service. Furthermore, the improved HOLMES embeds [[computational intelligence|computer intelligence]] for the first time. The dynamic reasoning engine (DRE), for example, makes it possible to combine the skills and experiences of crime investigators with the acquired knowledge of the system in order to identify new lines of enquiry.

Another important use of HOLMES 2 lies in [[emergency management|disaster management]]. The reason for this can be seen in the similarities that exist between the investigation of a major incident and a major disaster. In case of a disaster, HOLMES 2 collaborates with the facilities for disaster management via the [[casualty bureau]].<ref>For further information about the role of Casualty Bureau see http://www.met.police.uk/casualty/</ref> The additional functions required for casualty bureau operations, like recording [[Interpol]] data and specific action management facilities, are fully integrated into the HOLMES 2. HOLMES 2 also provides the ability to pool resources in order to handle more effectively the initial peak load of missing person calls from the public.  

There is also a fully-mobile version of HOLMES 2 which can be run on a [[laptop]] for use in courts or while travelling.

==Technical details==
The client/server architecture of HOLMES 2 is based on [[Windows 2000|Microsoft Windows 2000]] Professional or [[Windows NT 4.0|NT 4.0]] workstations with [[UNIX]] servers running either [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] or [[UnixWare]]. The system network communicates by using [[Internet Protocol Suite|TCP/IP]] [[Protocol (computing)|network protocols]] for [[Local area network|LAN]] and [[Wireless LAN|WLAN]] communication.

Furthermore, HOLMES 2 uses a two-tier approach for local [[database]] access and a three-tier approach for remote database access, whereby remote database access is user-configurable from the front end. A free-text database allows users to ask unstructured questions and to present the results in order of relevance. Apart from that, a dual operation was adopted to increase the speed of the system. While searches themselves were tuned at the [[SQL]] (Structured Query Language) level, additional indexes on the [[Relational database management system|RDBMS]] (relational database management system) tables were deployed.<ref>For further information about the technical details of the system see http://www.holmes2.com/holmes2/whatish2/techdetail/</ref>

==See also==
*[[Home Office]]
*[[Geographic information system]]
*[[Crime mapping]]
*[[Artificial intelligence]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.holmes2.com/holmes2/index.php HOLMES 2 Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019150240/http://www.holmes2.com/holmes2/index.php |date=2020-10-19 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130112182615/http://www.unisys.com/unisys/ Unisys Website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090502032022/http://npia.police.uk/en/10512.htm NPIA Holmes Website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090523112052/http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/032206-holmes2-database.html An example for the use of HOLMES 2 in practice]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091026094231/http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/home.html Crime & Investigation Network]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100128214605/http://www.htcia.org/index.shtml International High Technology Crime Investigation Association]
*[http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/index.jsp Legal Technology]
*[http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20120624141355/http://springerlink.com/content/100239/ Journal ''Artificial Intelligence and Law'']

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes 2}}
[[Category:Government databases in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Law enforcement in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Home Office (United Kingdom)]]

{{Unisys}}