The National Office of Statistics reported 6.1 million incidents of crime in 2016. Home Office figures show that between September 2010 and September 2016, the number of police officers in English and Welsh forces fell by 13 per cent. The need for greater operational efficiency is paramount to public safety. That is where we come in.
Geoff Smith Associates Ltd (GSA), is a family owned business established in 1997, which produces software solutions for police forces and the public sector. The company is based in Bardon, Leicestershire and employs staff including a large team of developers and ex-police force staff.
The business was started by the late Geoff Smith, who was a police officer in Leicestershire for 30 years; most of that time was spent dealing with crime. Towards the end of his career in 1991, he was asked to look at specifying a networked computerised crime and intelligence system, to take us into the 21st century. At this time almost everything was either paper based or standalone ‘green screen’ systems.
What Geoff developed was ground-breaking; it was one of the first of its kind to be networked allowing officers to view their workload from any workstation. It also allowed them to view statements and photographs online.
Geoff joined forces with Dave Blackburn, our Technical Director who was lead developer on the original project. Together they came up with Cyclops document management system which later included our configurable workflow and case management system.
After 20 years of continuous growth, Geoff Smith Associates Ltd is now producing software solutions for almost every police force in the UK, and users in 381 councils. Other customers include the HMRC, NHS and the Foreign Commonwealth Office. We supply systems internationally in Jamaica and Gibraltar. Our numerous applications are used at all levels, departmental, force, regional and nationally.
At heart, we are a family business. Paul Smith is Managing Director, and Steve Smith is our IT director. Dave Blackburn is our Technical Director.