Leap year bug threat to police computers Source: Evening News - Scotland

POLICE are bracing themselves for Millennium Bug type problems as computer systems fail to recognise February 29. Lothian and Borders Police has run tests on its systems to ensure the date will not cause problems.

Roy Mackintosh, head of information technology at Lothian and Borders Police, said: "It's similar to the Y2K problem.

"There is reasonable concern that there might be a spin-off problem on February 29.

"To be absolutely sure there won't be a problem the force ran tests as part of its programme against the Y2K bug and we have demonstrated to a reasonable level that there's not going to be a difficulty.

Precautions

"We will have people on stand-by on the day and there are contingency plans in case anything goes wrong, but we are confident the system will function."

A spokeswoman for Action 2000, the group set up to tackle Y2K problems, said the problem stemmed from the fact that 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 is.

"Leap years come every four years but are missed every 100 years," she said. "But every 400 years that rule does not apply so this makes 2000 a leap year.

"Many kinds of systems store and process dates, so they need to recognise 2000 is a leap year.

"Although major problems are not expected, any system using dates could be disrupted. Action 2000 is advising businesses to take simple precautions."

Publication date: Feb 22, 2000

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 24, 2000