Crimint is a database run by the Metropolitan Police Service of Greater London which stores information on criminals, suspected criminals[1] and protesters.[2] It was created in 1994 and supplied by Memex Technology Limited. It supports the recording and searching of items of intelligence by both police officers and back office staff. As of 2005 it contained seven million information reports and 250,000 intelligence records.[3] The database makes it much easier for police officers to find information on people, as one officer who used the system stated in 1996:
"With Crimint we are in a new world. I was recently asked if I knew something about a certain car. In the old days I would have had to hunt through my cards. I would probably have said, 'Yes, I do, but . . . '. With Crimint I was able to answer the question in about fifteen seconds. And with Crimint things just don't go missing."[4]
People are able to request their information from the database under data protection laws. Requests have shown that the database holds large amounts of information on protesters who have not committed any crimes.[5] Information is stored for at least seven years. Holding information on people who have never committed any offence may be against people's human rights.[2] A police officer, Amerdeep Johal, allegedly used the database to contact sex offenders and threatened to disclose information about them from the database unless they paid him thousands of pounds.[6]