Cable & Wireless offers an integrated mobile solution

Cable & Wireless has signed a three-year framework agreement with the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) to provide an integrated, managed mobile information solution for use by police forces across the UK.

Under the agreement, Cable & Wireless will offer police forces an off-the-shelf managed solution, which includes software and hardware. It works by interfacing with force systems and applications, giving police officers access to vital information while they are out on the beat. The solution runs on handheld computers and works as a functional mobile computer unit.

As well as accessing and verifying information using the mobile information units, officers can input and update information – such as criminal record checks – via their mobile computers.

Officers out on the beat will have access to core operational systems, reducing the amount of time they spend at the station completing lengthy administration duties.

Forces can also save money when purchasing multiple mobile information solutions. The acceleration package is available through the existing PNN3 (Police National Network) framework, meaning that forces will not need to spend time and money on new competitive tender processes.

PNN3 supports one of the key recommendations of the Bichard Inquiry to deliver an integrated national, regional and local information-sharing and intelligence capability.

Jim Marsh, chief executive officer at Cable & Wireless said: “This contract is an extension to the services we already provide to police forces in the UK… the agreement we’ve signed with the NPIA could revolutionise the way police work. Our mobile information solution fully meets the current requirements of the police service and is available to police forces today.”

Cable & Wireless has significant expertise in managing secure, ‘joined-up’ services for the police and other criminal justice organisations in the UK.

It has managed the communications network for the PNN Framework Arrangement since its inception in the early 1990s, offering managed voice, data, video, Internet and hosting services to all police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as more than 100 organisations in the wider criminal justice community.

The Prime Minister announced last year that at least 10,000 handheld computers would be made available to the police and operational by September this year. The Home Office responded by providing £50 million capital investment for the NPIA to support police services in delivering this pledge. More recently, an additional £25 million has been provided by the Government, allowing for a further 15,000 handheld computers to be used by police by March 2010. This will take the total up to around 30,000 devices.