The Government has put its money where its mouth is and paid for the rapid deployment of mobile data devices to thousands of frontline officers, effectively opening up the throttle on the market for mobile information management. In this supplement, we talk to a number of forces and suppliers at the forefront of mobile technology. Effective use of mobile data has been a holy grail in the last few years for a number of IT professionals and officers around the service as they see many other markets, such as the utility sector or the vehicle recovery industry, using mobile data devices to access and input information direct into back-office systems without the need to regularly return to their bases.
The journey from the humble police whistle to police boxes and then to radios took a long time. The use of mobile data is the next step in this evolution of police communications but the developments are set to be much more dramatic and open up many possibilities and opportunities. Digital information has allowed for a rapid growth in the technology we all use as consumers and the possibilities for business change are immense.
The last four years have seen a vast number of pilots and trials of different technologies allowing police officers and staff to send, receive and store information in new ways.
This year has seen an explosion of activity. In the next week or two the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will announce that it has met the deadline set by the Prime Minister when he promised to get 10,000 additional mobile devices into the hands of frontline staff around the UK by September 2008.
It is already being claimed as a case study of a successful government IT project. With forces freeing up around an hour a day per officer, the £50 million the Government gave to rollout the devices will pale compared to overall savings.
However, this dash for the cash has raised questions over whether the solutions being rolled out in forces are adequate for the complexity of police mobile information requirements, given that they had to be in place by September. The main question was whether the focus was on the devices rather than the business changes they could benefit.
Soon, the second phase of another £25 million will be allocated and this time it sounds like there is more of a plan with longer-term goals in mind and a more sensible deadline of March 2010 to get a further 15,000 devices in use.
Network issues
In the first phase of mobile data development, most devices will connect through a single network or bearer, either 3G, GPRS or Airwave.
Forces with rural areas, such as the Highlands of Scotland, have no other choice than to use the only network that can be obtained – Airwave. The availability of Airwave was recently questioned in some urban areas, even though its ability to reach further into buildings is accepted and it is now available deep into the London Underground, following the inquiry into the London bombings in 2005.
Airwave was able to operate at that time – unlike commercial networks – as relatives from across the world clogged systems as they called London to check on their family’s safety.
If users grow to rely on the use of mobile data, the question of whether forces should invest in devices that do not simply rely on one network will become more important. Nationally, the service has invested heavily in the Airwave network to ensure that secure voice networks remain available even if base stations are disabled. And Sir Ronnie Flanagan said that forces were not exploiting this investment to its full potential in his review of policing published earlier this year.
As the NPIA’s Richard Earland explained, care is being taken to examine the potential for multi-bearer devices, but the market may not be big enough, leaving most with a choice between public networks and Airwave.
The issue over the charges for data use by networks is also one that many forces have had to grapple with. For instance, Lothian and Borders Police initially piloted mobile devices that worked offline and downloaded data on return to stations, rather than using any network. As officers have had to return to stations to share data, and benefits from transmission of data are seen in other pilots, the cost of connecting and using devices was explored and came as a shock. The annual cost of £225,000 or £7.50 per device per month to use devices over GPRS or 3G came as an additional cost to the project.
Martin Hansen, director of IT at Nottinghamshire Police, noted that commercial network charges are typically around or below £10 per month per device, equating to 37p per working day. Nottinghamshire currently leases police vehicles and pays 50p per mile, so if the use of the device saves just one mile travelling per day, the force is in profit.
Lancashire has been paying £14.50 per device per month but with increased numbers this will reduce to £8.50. They do see the exploitation of the service’s investment in Airwave and the savings that can provide as a huge incentive for spreading their use of data over this network. Currently, all their data usage on in-vehicle mobile data terminals comes free as a result of their current voice contract. And increasing the usage will cost an average force around £5,000. Airwave confirmed that many forces data usage will be included in the voice contract.
A significant success
Richard Earland is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the NPIA who, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers, (ACPO) has evaluated and assessed the bids for government funding.
Mr Earland said: “There are always issues in rolling out any technology in a service such as policing. That is to do with the huge diversity of operational context within which we operate. That said, this is a significant success story in government computing because we have a real, challenging target which we will meet, not simply in rolling out a certain number of devices but by taking a technology and rapidly exploiting it across the country, giving some really stunning benefits.”
One of the reasons this project is exciting, he said, apart from the popularity among the end users, is the stimulation of new ways of working. “One force is starting to take marks from a crime scene, get them to the bureau and then get a response in a matter of minutes. That produces stunning opportunities to open lines of enquiry very quickly.”
The drivers are the changing processes, at a strategic level, keeping frontline staff where the public want them and need them – on the streets rather than in the office. Instead of completing a stop and account form and going back to the station to complete an incident form as a separate process, this is all done automatically on the street and back office systems are populated so the officer remains where the public wants them.
The public wants to communicate with neighbourhood officers by email, telephone and even text, and officers are now able to do so remotely. “That needs managing but we are seeing that benefit in terms of higher visibility in communities,” he added.
Mr Earland is a special constable for the British Transport Police and has seen the benefits from its pilot programme.
“Police are able to respond quicker. I have been involved in incidents where we have been unable to verify addresses, but using these devices we are now able to. That member of the public has been allowed to go on their way without being delayed by the police – innocent members of the public shouldn’t be delayed.”
Mr Earland believes the most important aspect is to see mobile data in the context of the consolidation and convergence of police IT. The issue forces say is their biggest problem is back-end integration as a result of th