The Courier Mail reports that Police avoid arrests due to time-consuming QPRIME computer system, a rare case of usability making an appearance in mainstream media. Here’s an extract:

Frustrated Queensland police are turning a blind eye to crime to avoid time-consuming data entry on the force’s new $100 million computer system…the latest phased roll-out of QPRIME, or Queensland Police Records Information Management Exchange…”They are reluctant to make arrests and they’re showing a lot more discretion in the arrests they make because QPRIME is so convoluted to navigate,”…jobs could now take up to seven hours to process because of the amount of data entry involved.

What I find most annoying is that a Queensland Police Service spokesperson said “…the benefits of the QPRIME system into the future far outweigh short-term disaffection by some officers…” which misses the point. It’s not officers’ disaffection that is the problem, it’s the larger impact on their ability to perform their duties!

I hear this all the time; “it’s not a big deal, users will get used to it”. But it’s the cumulative effect of all these “minor issues” that will affect usability, efficiency and in the case of police officers, the safety of our community.

Meanwhile, a similar story in the Washington Post describes how…

The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects…partly because the software offered limited options for classifying entries.

[Thanks to Dorian Taylor for the tip off regarding the Washington Post article via the IA Institute mailing list]