Bedfordshire Police, City of London Police and Norfolk Constabulary have just signed contracts with WPC Software for the supply of a new firearms licensing system called Shogun. WPC Software specialises in developing computer applications for the emergency services. Shogun, their flagship application, is running in 23 of the U.K's police forces.

The system is designed to make firearms information more accessible to the whole force, giving officers and administration staff the tools to do their job more efficiently. Shogun makes dealing with enquiries from the public considerably faster through the use of a simple search tool. The system keeps a current record of which shotgun or firearms certificates are due to expire and allows staff to update and issue certificates at just a few clicks of a button.

Sandra Beaumont-Kerridge Firearms Licensing Manager at Bedfordshire Constabulary said " This form of technology will prove very valuable to the professional running of the department."

Sharing information is becoming more and more important to forces as higher demands are put on their performance levels. Shogun is a Microsoft Windows based application that also has an Intranet facility, which allows officers and staff who do not work in the Firearms Licensing department to view licensing information from any computer in the force whenever they need to.

Norfolk Constabulary has also purchased WPC's Document Management System - Ferret to help them reduce the amount of paperwork, which they are filing away every day. Ferret is effectively a virtual filing cabinet, which scans in documents, certificates, letters etc and stores them, making them available for easy retrieval whenever needed.

With these new sales under their belt WPC Software are working hard to increase awareness within the UK's police forces, of computer technology and its role in helping to fight crime and reduce costs.