Berne Bern Grand Council not yet satisfied with police software

The Bernese cantonal government should take more responsibility for the bumpy introduction of a major IT project at the cantonal police and public prosecutor's office. This was demanded by the Grand Council on Wednesday. It took note of a report by the Security Directorate, but was not yet satisfied.

The Grand Council unanimously took note of the report on the new software. In the report, the cantonal government provided information on why it had retained the IT system despite problems and answered questions from the Audit Committee. The consensus was that the cantonal government had thus fulfilled the parliament's mandate.

Nevertheless, the matter is not yet closed for parliament. It demanded that the cantonal government "assume its overall responsibility until the original goal of digital data exchange between the police and the judiciary has been achieved".

The government must also show how the canton will ensure that the lessons learned from the NeVo/Rialto project are taken into account in future projects. With these demands, the parliament agreed with the audit committee.

When it was launched in 2022, NeVo/Rialto was regarded as an innovative project that did not yet exist in Switzerland. It was intended to digitalize and standardize the processes between the police and the public prosecutor's office.

However, following its introduction in the police force, it was mainly dissatisfied users, delays and additional costs that made the headlines. The software has been significantly improved, but the data bridge between the police and judiciary is not yet working.