A REAL-TIME CRIME RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCIES (Published)
The present world is technology driven as it is employed by many fields in the performance of their operation. In the case of law enforcement agencies, this is evident in the use of automated crime record management systems (CRMS) worldwide to keep record of crime and criminals involved. Crime being an act against the law of a society is a threat to the well-being of the populace and so, requires efficient and effective monitoring. For this reason, CRMS have been developed to achieve this purpose. However, in Nigeria, the CRMS employed is majorly manual, which is, the use of pen and paper. This records are therefore susceptible to destruction from pests and uncensored manipulation by both authorized and unauthorized personnel. This crude method has resulted in problems in the areas of authenticity, security, retrieval, storage, and exchange of information within the NPF. This research aims to design and implement a computerized real time (CRMS) for the (NPF). In developing this CRMS, the waterfall model of system development was adopted through the stages of requirement elicitation from stakeholders of the CRMS to the systems design and analysis using tools such as entity relationship diagrams for the database and use case diagrams which describe user requirements. The system was implemented using Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) for a highly interactive graphical user interface, PHP and MySQL for a robust database. The CRMS enhances efficiency in correcting the problems earlier stated and it is an effective tool for easy analysis of data which will improve the NPF’s law enforcement operations, it also allows for criminal records check by Background Check Companies (BCC). The application of the CRMS will result in lower threat level to the Nigerian citizens, thus, improving national buoyancy.
Keywords: Crime, Crime Records Management, First Incidence Report (FIR)