New live streaming platform credited with helping police 'save lives' during trials
Officers from Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Hertfordshire Constabulary have praised a new live streaming platform that has been credited with saving lives during extensive system trials.
The new technology platform, GoodSAM Instant-On-Scene, allows members of the public to stream live video and share their precise location with police control rooms through a mobile device without needing an app. It is credited with saving a number of lives and hundreds of hours of officers’ time during a trial period across the three force areas.
The platform also provides the forces with other capabilities, such as officers being able to live stream video from their phones into the control room and to colleagues. It also integrates with drones, allowing live aerial video to be viewed immediately by officers on the ground. A ‘consultation’ feature allows officers to invite members of the public to a multi-way video call, for use in situations where it might not be appropriate to visit in person.
GoodSAM has been used by the three forces’ control rooms on more than 3,000 occasions, and is now in use across multiple areas of the organisations, including being used by more than 2,500 frontline officers, police community support officers and scenes of crime officers.
Inspector Chris Hutton, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (BCH) Police Digital Innovation Team, said: “Our use of this technology is about improving the service we can provide. The platform has been a resounding success across BCH and has been used in some hugely innovative ways.
“We can directly attribute it to locating and saving the lives of some particularly vulnerable individuals, some of whom had made significant attempts to harm themselves, and we have been able to use live video with 999 callers such as during the aftermath of a stabbing.
“Feedback from officers, police staff and the public has been fantastic, and we quickly determined that this is a vitally important capability for policing.
“Being able to video triage an incident at the point of call and accurately locate the caller means we can ensure we send the right resources to the right location. As we navigate through the global Covid-19 pandemic, GoodSAM allows us to harness the power of technology to work in a smart, efficient and effective way.”
Callers have to give consent to use GoodSAM, which together with strict risk assessments ensures that no one is ever placed at increased risk by sharing video footage.
