Monday, December 14, 2009

DPP websites … out of action since before August

The Northern Ireland Policing Board has had its own physical security issues over the last few weeks. But they’ve had an ongoing online security problem that’s affected the District Policing Partnership websites for around six months.

Static page for District Policing Partnerships

The problem arose when they switched from hosting externally to move their servers into an internal civil service data centre at the end of August. For many months, local DPP managers were unable to update pages and documents on the old website which was frozen awaiting the relaunch.

The new hosting environment has much stricter security requirements and website testing procedures which so far seem to have frustrated the Policing Board’s relaunch of the local DPP websites.

For a long time, the website just displayed a flat holding page with no alternative contact details. Last month, that changed to at least link to a static page of real-world phone numbers for the 26 DPPs.

The upshot is that at a time of increased interesting in the issues of policing and justice, while some local councils are now hosting DPP information on the council websites, it is harder for people to find out what’s happening concerning the policing of their local areas.

Anyone want to take bets on just how long it will take to resolve?

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