Council Memories 4: The case of the unusable database
I like to think of myself as a problem solver. When I have a problem I sit down and think. This may seem obvious but you will be surprised how rare this is. Too many people react, not analyse. The ability to think strategically is a trait we seem to be losing, we need to teach our kids how to play chess. The coming artificial intelligence revolution will only compound this issue.
As many of you will know, I worked for a council in the Crime & Disorder Team. One of the best jobs I ever had. This work showed me I had valuable skills developed throughout my life that not many others had secured. I knew how criminals and antisocial people thought, acted and rationalised. These were the people I grew up with and we share many of the same traits.
As a Youth Intervention Officer, I pushed the role into prevention, in terms of youth-related antisocial behaviour. Tackling current issues was essential for residents. But I instinctively knew that prevention was the key for the long term. Otherwise, we would be tackling the same issues forever as they came along the conveyor belt.
Every fortnight, I would access the police computer and print off all reports of youth nuisance. The police code was D92 - this code is burnt into my memory. I would work out what I could do with the information or if it was beneficial to pass it on to a partner agency for action. I created a whole new process of information sharing that was eventually promoted across the council. Ironically, several years later, I completed a written exercise as part of a promotion opportunity. The exercise was based on the process I had created - I was not successful. Feedback stated I did not perform at a high enough level on the exercise. Just because you create something new, does not mean anyone else understands it.
I knew young people socialised with friends. The location of this socialisation did not necessarily relate to where they lived. Kids made friends at school and arrange to socialise together in convenient locations. I decided to record all my problematic locations and assign the names of young people to that area. I came up with roughly a dozen areas that were constantly reported for youth nuisance. I asked for information from partner agencies to populate it with names. I created a database.
Over a couple of months, if anyone wanted to know who may be involved in youth-related issues in a particular neighbourhood they came to me. My simple spreadsheet was successful. It was very low-tech. Just a list of names per location. Each name was linked to additional information: address, DoB, school, status in terms of enforcement action taken, and contact details for support agencies involved.
It was a list. I called it a database, but it was a simple list. The only thing special about it was that I had created it. A 'big boss' heard about it -he was impressed. I was slightly embarrassed, for it was just a list. He saw what it could be with some investment and wanted to develop it into a 'high tech' database. I was onboard straight away. I wrote a briefing paper on what the database was, how it worked, and what improvements would look like. I was excited.
A 'temp' (a temporary member of staff from an outside agency) was employed to research the young people on my list and their families. All schools were contacted to record attendance and predicted qualifications. This was a huge amount of work and took the 'temp' two months full-time to complete. I never meet this person or had any contact with them. Halfway through the process, I was updated and the changes implemented were explained to me. Some did not make any sense but made no difference to me and how I was going to use it. If someone else could benefit from it as well, then why not? But one particular change was devastating. If implemented it would make the database useless to me. I emailed my boss and explained. He agreed. I left it with him.
A month later the database was complete. The research was over and the 'temp' had been sent back to the agency to seek another posting. I received the database via email. I was eager to open it and see what it could do to help me in my work. I clicked 'open file'. I was immediately impressed with the visual aesthetics and layout. Much better than my amateur attempt with shading and colours. This looked the part, it looked professional.
I started to click buttons, examine fields, and interrogate the data. There was lots of data. Contact details for every agency working with an individual or their family. School records. Children's services information. Criminal history and so much more. It was comprehensive. The 'temp' had done a great job compiling the information. I assume they spent lots of time chasing people for information, as it would be a nightmare trying to gather it all.
I tried to search the database by hotspot location. I wanted to see all the young people associated with an area. I could not figure out how to do it. I asked my colleagues to take a look in case I was missing something. I eventually emailed my boss. The reply ruined my week. It had been decided that searching by location was not needed. The local politicians had been informed about the project, probably so funding could be approved for the 'temp'. They wanted the database to be searchable by postcode. They wanted to see which of their young residents were accessing services and support.
Could not the database be designed to do both tasks? My need had been discussed but ignored. The excitement of having an all-singing and dancing database had led to the original use being forgotten. Pandering to the requests of politicians had delivered nothing of benefit. I saved the database onto my computer in a folder named 'miscellaneous'.
I never opened the file again. It was pointless. It did not do what I needed it to do. I went back to my simple spreadsheet. It looked amateurish. It had no special formulas or hyperlinks. It was slightly better than a paper list. But it was mine and it worked.
I needed a spanner. They built me a power tool with no spanner attachment.
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