Interesting announcement from BAE Systems Detica; it has announced Strategic Partner status with the CEOP Centre (Child Exploitation and Online Protection). CEOP’s other strategic partners are Microsoft, NSPCC and Visa Europe. In order to become a strategic partner, BAE Systems Detica has had to demonstrate how its technology has transformed the UK’s response to tackling child exploitation.
Detica has worked on a pro bono basis with CEOP since 2008. It has provided specialist consultancy in the areas of crime prevention and detection, and has implemented NetReveal (its proprietary enterprise risk management platform) as well as other bespoke solutions to significantly reduce the manual labour associated with identifying and determining the whereabouts of child sex offenders. In fact it’s hard to see what has changed, as BAE Systems Detica will continue to work on the same basis.
Though Detica’s work with CEOP is on a pro bono basis, it is interesting to note CEOP’s affiliation with SOCA (the Serious & Organised Crime Agency); CEOP is an affiliated unit with operational independence from SOCA but accountable to the SOCA Board through a committee. Detica was part of the i2d Consortium, headed by Logica, which won a £157 million IT outsourcing deal with SOCA in January last year (see Logica gets serious about crime). CEOP’s then-CEO, Jim Gamble, commented to the Home Affairs Committee in October 2010 that: “the fact we are affiliated to SOCA will create a conflict of interest when companies – for example, like Detica, who will deliver pro bono work for us, at the same time will want to bid for paid for business within SOCA”. He said the same applied for the likes of Serco. It's easy to be cynical but, then again, it must be galling to 'do good' and know that there'll always be someone ready to look for an ulterior motive.