Merseyside Police – Realising the benefits of mobile data

Using standard policing methods, if an officer needed to do a check on people or vehicles they would request this information via the radio. The control room operators would deal with the request and information would be passed back via the radio to the officer. This meant that two people were involved for every police check that was made which is not only time consuming but could also lead to inaccuracies.

The decision to move towards mobile data in order to alleviate many of the force's communication issues was initiated by the Merseyside Chief Constable. He knew that his force needed to increase its visibility to the general public and he wanted to ensure that information was delivered at the right place, at the right time. In addition, with the introduction of mobile data control room, operators could have their time freed up to carry out other jobs, whilst the safety of officers on patrol could also be improved.