Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Security is the most vital aspect of every society all over the globe irrespective of the location. Conventionally the management of records and profile is in our police stations are done manually by writing on paper, filing and categorizing the collected data and storing them in a cabinet or shelves. This method is slow and painstaking as retrieval of this data involves searching through hundreds or thousands of files to retrieve a small piece of information depending on the size of institution.
With the introduction of computers and Information System (IS), the process of collection and management of data which involved record keeping and profile management in police stations has been tremendously improved as the speed of data collecting and retrieval increased significantly thereby making data management is a major driving force in the ongoing Information Technology (IT) revolution. The records of citizens (complainant/defendant) collected serve many purposes and pass through many corporate processes. The records are so important that the police channel much resource to preserve the integrity of the records.
However, over the last few decades, there has been significant improvement in data storage, data access, data protection and data distribution where data storage was once at a high premium that a single CD-ROM can now store 500MB of data. Rumours has it next generation of CD-ROMs will store at least ten times that amount but there has been challenges in the last few years to the traditional data security and access philosophies. The lessons learnt over the years show that the continuing importance of data and the increase in citizens’ records and profile no matter how it is accessed or packaged will undoubtedly play a central role in the health and competitiveness of police in the future, (Alter, 2002).
The history of information systems coincides with the history of computer science that began long before the modern discipline of computer science emerged in the twentieth century. Regarding the circulation of information and ideas, numerous legacy information systems still exist today that are continuously updated to promote ethnographic approaches, to ensure data integrity, and to improve the social effectiveness and efficiency of the whole process.
Before the concept of information systems was created, computer scientists were just programmers creating applications for science and math calculations. As computer usage evolved in fields of business and data management, software applications were needed to process nonscientific data.
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