Police Authority Resources Committee 24 April 2008 Open for the purposes of FOI Report of Mike Walton, Head of ICT Agenda Item No.8 Airwave Service Business s Summary Recommendation(s): (i) That the Committee notes and accepts the contents of this report. Introduction / Summary 1. Following a request from the Committee, this report has been written to provide a summary of the current state of benefits realisation of the Airwave Service, as deployed within the Devon & Constabulary. 2. The force has not formally measured most of the expected or identified benefits. Therefore the view on the delivery is from experience from the continuous use of the service by our users, the team that manages these services, and from information received on other force experiences. It also incorporates results from the recent (February 2008) Airwave User survey which gave 890 responses from 4200 invitations to complete (21% response rate). Background Information 3. The force completed its geographic migration to Airwave in November 2005. In the intervening time, further developments and specialist migrations have taken place, including the use by the surveillance community, alarms to protect vulnerable people & property and the introduction of the APLS (Automatic Personal Location System) supporting officer safety and resource management of our Airwave users. 4. Also during this time the over 4200 Airwave users have become settled in their understanding and use of the features and functionality of the Airwave service as deployed with the Constabulary. This use, supported by technology, policies, working practices and procedures has allowed the majority of the expected business benefits to be realised. 5. A summary of the NPIA (National Policing Improvements Agency, formally PITO) benefits for Airwave, sorted by our importance in this Constabulary is shown in the following section and expanded upon within Appendix A.
Summary Table of Airwave s Realisation Theme Links to COG Objectives 2007/8 of Realisation (April Statement of Realisation Health and Increased officer Efficient & Effective Safety (HR) confidence HR High This benefit is deemed as met Citizen Focus (CF), Neighbourhood Coverage Improved coverage Policing (NP), High This benefit is deemed as met Protective Services (PS) Coverage Enhanced in-building penetration CF, NP, PS High This benefit is deemed as met Clarity Improved voice clarity CF, NP, PS High This benefit is deemed as met Security Reduced criminal scanning PS, CF, NP High This benefit is deemed as met Security Less intrusion by press / trouble makers PS, CF, NP High This benefit is deemed as met Performance More effective use of officers time CF, NP, PS Good Opportunities for this remain to be realised. Reduced time in stations/ Performance More effective remote & working CF, NP, PS Marginal This benefit is deemed as NOT met. Capacity Free to speak CF, NP, PS High Technically enabled but not operationally met. Availability Less interference CF, NP, PS High This benefit is deemed as met Command & This benefit is deemed as met, but that is not in No overtalking CF, NP, PS High Control line with user requirements. Improved interoperability between Forces PS, CF High This benefit is deemed as met Reduction in geographic constraints PS, CF High This benefit is deemed as met More immediate PNC result NP, CF Low This benefit is deemed as NOT met. Enables Private CF, NP, PS High This benefit is deemed as met Conversations More effective control room Improved access to other applications CF, NP, PS Dis-benefit Queue to speak CF, NP, PS Not assessed This benefit is technically enabled but not yet fully operationally met. CF, NP, PS Minor This benefit is deemed as PARTIALLY met. Not expected to be a problem This benefit is deemed as met, in that there is no over-talking but that is not in line with user requirements. Key:- Green benefit met Olive benefit as defined met but not in line with user requirements Yellow benefit remain to be fully realised Red benefit is not met Contact: for further information Name Tim Bishop Job Title Airwave Development and Services Manager Telephone 01392 452348 E-mail tim.bishop@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk Sponsored by ACC (CF) Sharon Taylor
Devon & Constabulary AIRWAVE SERVICE APPENDIX A SUPPORTING INFORMATION Increased officer confidence Health and Safety (HR) Poor No baseline High The emergency button, improved coverage and use of APLS should result in officers being much more confident that help will reach them quickly if needed. 88% of survey users agreed that the emergency button was a good safety feature whilst 52% said they felt safer using Airwave than the old radio schemes. Improved coverage Coverage Poor Similar High (Dependent on masts) We pay for 33% geographic coverage at guaranteed Handportable coverage, which encompasses 89% of premises in the force area. Additionally from careful placement of sites we get a predicted 92% total Handheld coverage. We are looking at a further proposal from Airwave to increase the handheld coverage even more. Further more under analogue radio 973 coverage issues were logged, with Airwave there are currently 21 open cases. 63% of survey responders agreed that coverage is generally good. Enhanced in-building penetration Poor Similar High In building access to the Airwave service is not guaranteed but extra contracted coverage aims to provide good in-building H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 3
Devon & Constabulary Coverage coverage. The current Airwave Issue log shows only 6 logged reports of in-building coverage concerns. Improved voice clarity Clarity Reduced criminal scanning Security Poor In line High This is a fundamental feature of Airwave. Quality on Airwave is analogous to CD s v LP records. Digital signals like Airwave do not degrade rather they are typically there or not. This means fewer messages have to be repeated. Very poor Worse High Feature of Airwave. 87% of users surveyed agreed that this was a real benefit. Less intrusion by press / trouble makers Security Not a current problem None taken High Results from security of system again 87% of users surveyed agreed that this was a real benefit. More effective use of officers time Performance Poor Poor Good Some progress is made with use of status codes. Texting and APLS give major chance. Of course clarity first call getting through does offer increased effectiveness. Opportunities for this remain to be realised. Reduced time in stations/ More effective remote working (Mobile Data) No data No baseline Marginal Mobile Data is not part of Airwave programme. H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 4
Devon & Constabulary Performance and Applications This benefit is deemed as NOT met. However, our use of status code updates and resource plotting on maps (APLS in which we are a leading force) are examples of mobile information techniques, using the Airwave service. Both of which are being further encouraged during March s Airwave User Roadshows Free to speak Capacity Poor Slightly worse average than High Feature of Airwave. The average occupancy across all our 11 Dispatcher Talk Groups was 25.81% in December 2007. At times this will mean that users will have to queue to get onto the talk Group and 74% of users from the survey responded that this was a problem. Technology is not the limiting factor here, rather the availability of (CMCD) resources to control more (smaller) Talk Groups. This benefit is technically enabled but not operationally met. Less interference Availability Poor Slightly worse High Feature of Airwave. The cellular nature of Airwave and its build with the European Public Safety band radio spectrum (380 400MHz) means that interference to Airwave is virtually nonexistent. Since introduction there have been 5 logged instances, H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 5
Devon & Constabulary three of self-interference (Airwave on Airwave - resolved, one from MoD systems resolved and one further currently under investigation from Ofcom. 87% of users surveyed agreed that this was a real benefit. No overtalking Command and Control Improved interoperability between Forces Communications Sharing Can currently In line High Feature of Airwave. By many this is seen as a dis-benefit, 86% of our surveyed users agreed with that. It is also an opportunity to reassert Command & Control and Radio Discipline (such as training as part of "Airwave Speak"). This benefit is deemed as met, in that there is no over-talking but that is not in line with user requirements. Satisfactory Better High Talk groups set up to enable complete interoperability, with cross border Talk Groups for planned operations. National Talk Groups have now been mandated and put in all our 5000+ Airwave terminals. This allows inter-force and inter-agency capability and supports our requirement under the Civil Contingencies Act. Reduction in geographic constraints (need to change talkgroups) Roaming Poor Similar High Talkgroups set up as force wide. Working practices developed to enable pursuits to remain on a single talkgroup. Forcewide teams are able to fully operate without any geographic constraints. Op UTAH (six force roving ANPR Operation, starting in our force area) in March 08 is planned to use this across the region. H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 6
Devon & Constabulary More immediate PNC result Applications Satisfactory No PITO baseline Low May be extensively used by PCSOs and Traffic Wardens. Expected to be less of a benefit for officers who often also want CIS information. Trial in 2006 showed only limited use/benefit. Currently users that wish it have access to Airwave PNC on request. Limited by PNC results not showing date of first registration nor MOT or insurance details. This benefit is deemed as NOT met. Enables Private Conversations Applications Use phone the Similar High Feature of Airwave, known as Point to Point or Private Radio Calls. 93% of survey responders agreed that this was a useful feature. All 5000+ of our Airwave terminals have also been enabled for outgoing telephony and 4000 are set up with their own, dedicated incoming telephone numbers backed by corporate voicemail More effective control room Applications Not known Believe that we are already more effective than many, but no Not assessed The introduction of Automatic Personal Location System (APLS) in November 2007 could play a large part in meeting this benefit. Control Room working practices utilising APLS are still under development but good practices are emerging. This benefit is technically enabled but not yet fully operationally H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 7
Devon & Constabulary Improved access to other applications Applications data to prove met. this Poor In line Minor Access to applications other than APLS, status updates to OIS (Command and Control) logs and PNC is not currently planned. This benefit is deemed as PARTIALLY met. Queue to speak (Disbenefit) Dis-benefit Can interrupt In line Not expected to be a problem As above (No Overtalking). Within the TETRA standard to which Airwave is built there is not standard for overtalk/overcoming queue to speak. That notwithstanding the Airwave Service Provider has been asked to develop this service as an option. This benefit is deemed as met, in that there is no over-talking but that is not in line with user requirements. H:\police-authority\Airwave Service Business s Summary report for 240408.doc Author: Tim Bishop, Constabulary Airwave Development & Services Manager Page 8