Gloucestershire captures every call

Gloucestershire Constabulary have implemented Activa’s Veritel Pro recording solution to capture and store over 100 channels of telephone and radio communications in the force’s control room and police contact centre.

Gloucestershire began a tendering process after discovering their existing system was no longer supported. And with increased demand for copies of 999 calls for evidence plus the need to meet the National Call Handling Standards a new system was clearly needed.

With the old recording system, the process of copying 999 calls involved locating the appropriate DAT tape and using a DAT reproducer for replay. The required piece of material was then copied in real-time to C90 cassette since the Courts are only equipped with cassette recorders. This produced large quantities of evidence to track, required numerous pieces of media and placed heavy demand on control room supervisors. It has been estimated that at least three working weeks over a period of four months were dedicated to producing 999 calls tapes for court evidence.

Through Veritel Pro’s intuitive browser-based interface and its ample search criteria, locating a call is now a matter of minutes. The retrieved call can be copied onto digital media for retaining maximum sound quality or even immediately e-mailed to the requesting party saving even more valuable time as already experienced during a recent criminal investigation. Gloucestershire constabulary is now actively working with the Criminal Justice Department, CPS and HM Courts Services to introduce a more efficient and higher quality digital reproduction method for audio-based evidence in the court rooms.

Gloucestershire requires 12 months worth of calls available for on-line replay and immediate access together with archiving facilities for accessing a library of older record-ings. The force’s control room and the contact centre are operated by 124 staff spread across a number of shifts/teams and handle on average 45,000 calls per month of which 7,000 are 999 calls. All calls, including an additional 630,000 minutes per month of Tetra digital radio traffic, are recorded using the Veritel Pro solution. An additional port-able Veritel recorder is used by the force at major outside events such as the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Cheltenham Gold Cup Festival.

“We are delighted with the Veritel Pro recording solution as provided by Activa and with their assistance during the tendering process. The Activa team has been responsive to our enquiries and requirements, nothing seemed too much.” Commented Mark Woodward, Police Sergeant at Gloucestershire Police. “The solution has met all of our requirements and has already proved its value by saving a considerable amount of officers’ precious time in producing 999 tapes for court evidence and criminal investigations.”