Simulation software optimises custody management
New software offers police forces a tool which can forecast what steps are needed in order to optimise custody management processes, facilities and resources, both now and in future.
New software offers police forces a tool which can forecast what steps are needed in order to optimise custody management processes, facilities and resources, both now and in future.
Custody is the third PRISM module to be released by Lanner Group, the business process analysis company, following Call Handling and Incident Response earlier this year.
PRISM is a decision-support platform which enables police forces to build thorough, evidence-based business cases for process improvement.
Lanner has worked with all 43 police forces in England and Wales to develop simulation of police processes across multiple projects.
In order to maximise custody management, Lanners latest PRISM module factors in a multitude of variables in order to calculate all possible scenarios.
These include instances such as where the arrest was made, the time required to travel to different suites, the amount of free space within each suite, and divisional policies of which suite to use in order to map the best possible use of facilities and resources.
This is achieved by giving users a breakdown of exactly what benefits would be achieved from each set of circumstances. In doing so, the user can be sure what outcome such a move would make before investment is committed.
The software can also be tailored to a forces exact requirements. For example, an officer could ask questions of the software, such as: what would be the effect of merging two existing suites, what would be the effect of building new super custody suites, what would be the benefit of sharing a new suite with a neighbouring division, and what would be the effect of zero tolerance policing on my custody suites? This level of functionality allows forces to exploit their process improvement capabilities.
West Mercia Constabulary, is the first force to sign up to all three PRISM modules.
David Jones, CEO at Lanner Group, said: Making the right decisions is pivotal in the police sector, so having a solution which can facilitate evidence-based decisions in a short timeframe is extremely important. PRISM was designed with this in mind.
