Policemen in the UK are left red-faced after a software screwup - caused in part by the user - which compromised the privacy of many people

The Dutch police force will move to open source wherever that is possible, but not exclusively, a spokesperson said this week, correcting a statement published by Linux distributor Red Hat a week ago.

Police data systems should be based on open source software, according to a data expert working with law enforcement.

An Indymedia server was seized by police in Manchester. This comes after somebody had posted the address of the judge in the SHAC trial on Indymedia, leading to Kent Police requesting that the IP address of their author be divulged. Because Indymedia don’t log the IP addresses of people publishing on it, they couldn’t help police with their enquiries.

The Berlin-based union of the German police issued a press release two days ago, where they said that their “Poliks” system to handle reports isn’t stable and reliable enough. Taking up a report into that system often would take between 30 and 90 minutes, which would be awkward. Also, the 73 million Euro system would crash far too often.

The Avon and Somerset Constabulary in Great Britain uses animations created with the open source tool Blender to help citizens understand how to protect their vehicles and possessions from theft.