Spreading the word

The word is spreading. As one force in the Midlands has created a simple tool to make contact with the public easier, other forces in the region are looking to use the same system to increase the level and quality of contact with the public.

Leicestershire Constabulary is developing ways to keep in contact with the public, including through its website. However, its neighbourhood officers still want to keep in contact with residents through traditional printed newsletters that can be put through letterboxes on a regular basis. The small team of developers based in the media team were able to assist in finding the solution.

Despite a considerable amount of effort using basic software, there was still an excessive amount of time and effort being wasted creating newsletters that ended up looking different every time they were published. The media web team had tried using Microsoft Word documents and templates to help local policing Units (LPUs) create their newsletters. However, by the time that photographs were inserted and columns adjusted to fit alongside the pictures, and logos were adjusted to fit the amount of text used, the newsletters looked very different to previous ones. The lack of consistency meant something more sophisticated was needed to make life easier for neighbourhood officers and to maintain the branding and corporacy required.

Using ASP and SQL software, the newsletters are stored in databases and the relevant information is inputted based on the author’s beat. Content such as headings, logos and contact details remain constant. Neighbourhood officers simply type in their voicemail number and email address, which are then inserted into the correct position on the pages.

The force’s branding plus the individual LPU’s branding is included, and the relevant website and email addresses – of the LPU and not just the force’s homepage – are published.

Simply chose a two or four page newsletter, click on the relevant boxes such as ‘Introduction’, insert text to the specified length and then the system formats the font, size of text and position on the newsletter. The author has no concern over how it will look; it will look exactly the same as the last one. The system even shows the author how it looks on page as the type is added.

You can’t change the size, font or the colour – the layout is fixed. If you type too much text in, it will go off the screen; you can’t shrink the font down and make the type tiny to squeeze more in, or make it too big to pad it out. You have to write the right amount.

You can also add officers for a specific beat. Clicking ‘Add officer’, they can type in a name and collar number and their details will be added to the beat’s newsletter in exactly the right place.

Where a photograph is required, the author simply uploads the picture to the system from a digital camera, possibly a camera phone, and the software will resize it to fit the relevant space.

Natalie Clay, website officer for Leicestershire Constabulary, said that prior to the system being created, various templates had been used using Microsoft Word. “Authors would either write too much or they would alter the formatting. The layout was fixed but officers would always find a way to change it,” she said.

A similar system had already been created to build small websites on the intranet, so a similar approach was chosen to create the newsletters. Rather than publishing the information as a web page, it can be printed as PDFs.

Once the newsletters are created, the author inputs a budget code and the number of copies required, and the printing department then produces the documents as required.

As the documents are created using web software, the newsletters are also published on the force website and can be downloaded by the public at their convenience.

The system also records the author and whoever amends the document. Saving the document in the system also means that there is only one version in circulation, elimin