Next-generation control room goes live

South Wales Police has gone live with Capita Communications and Control Solutions’ latest technology for police contact centre and control room operations. It is the first UK police force to roll out ControlWorks, which is now fully operational and includes computer-aided dispatch and customer relationship management functionalities – much of which is automated.

This promises to help speed up the decision-making process for call handlers and therefore improve overall response times to incidents. The system also enables the force to manage all of its operations from a single viewpoint, from resource planning and geographical mapping, through to automatic updates about vulnerable and repeat callers, making its processes even more effective.

Capita has been working on control room solutions with South Wales Police for more than 15 years. The introduction of the cutting-edge ControlWorks technology is the latest innovation to improve its efficiency and service to the public.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis said: “The introduction of ControlWorks is an important milestone for South Wales Police. We have worked with Capita to develop a system that not only makes the force more accessible, but also provides our call handlers with the capability to provide a far more tailored and accurate service to members of the public contacting our service centre. It will allow us to be more efficient and effective and enable us to better align our use of technology to frontline service delivery.

“As we move forward, of paramount concern is that we ensure the safety of officers and the public despite the challenges we face. In addition to the recent improvements we have made to the force’s mobile capabilities, such as issuing operational officers with smart devices, ControlWorks will help ensure we are able to provide our communities with a quality policing service today and in the future.”

Paul Eggleton, managing director of Capita Communication and Control Solutions, said: “Our longstanding partnership with South Wales Police has been built on trust, flexibility and a desire to innovate and enhance its operational efficiency and level of service to the public. We believe the implementation of ControlWorks is key to this process – it will generate significant operational efficiencies and improve the service provided by control room operators to the public. We look forward to supporting South Wales Police in the years to come as it continues to seek ways to innovate and overcome the challenges it faces.”