City of London Police on track for paperless policing

City of London Police is the latest force to move towards paperless policing with the rollout of electronic notebooks to officers.

The Pronto devices from Airwave will be loaded with a suite of policing applications that will give officers remote and mobile access to all local and national backend systems. These include the Police National Computer (PNC) as well as the force command and control and crime and intelligence systems.

In addition, City of London Police has requested a phased approach for the installation of its existing portfolio of policing process onto the devices and Airwave is working with it to prioritise the different applications in order to ensure a smooth transition.

The Pronto electronic notebook is already used by a number of police forces throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

“With Pronto, police officers can access vital backend systems from the front line. They can key in information at the point of need and then reuse the information digitally for the full range of policing processes that are be available through the Pronto suite of applications,” said John Lewis, chief operating officer of Airwave.

Dyfed-Powys Police has just started the first phase of its rollout of electronic notebooks after agreeing to implement the Airwave devices earlier this year. Initially, 48 officers will be using the electronic notebooks, which in addition to the PNC and the force command and control and crime and intelligence systems, will also give them access to the data management tool Experian QAS.

Dyfed-Powys Police has also prioritised a range of processes that will move it into the paperless environment. These include direct crime, domestic abuse, stalking and harassment (DASH) forms, as well as collision reports and other traffic processes.

Chief Constable Simon Prince said: “The benefits of officers having access to systems and information while out on patrol are clear. Being able to complete tasks once that synchronise with force systems will save time, effort and avoid entering information twice.

“Officers will not be in stations at computers, they will be out and visible in our communities. Mobile digital policing is a key part of our wider police and crime plan where we are changing the way we work in order to put the public first.”

The programmes will be managed and delivered by Airwave’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Kelvin Connect.