Surrey and Sussex plan joint community messaging

The police and crime commissioners (PCC) for Surrey and Sussex are tendering for a joint externally-hosted community messaging service that will broadcast police generated messages via email, text, voice and fax direct to the public and local businesses.

The Surrey and Sussex police forces currently use separate community messaging systems, which have around 13,000 registered users in Surrey and 40,000 registered users in Sussex.

A requirement of the new system will be the ability to import existing data from current systems as well as increasing the number of registered users to enable bespoke messages to be sent from a single portal to specific geographical and demographic groups within both counties.

The PCCs say while the primary method of contact will be by email, the system should provide the capability for messages to be sent via SMS and phone.

The current Sussex system is used to manage Neighbourhood Watch scheme membership and the tender says this remains a key requirement for a joint system.

In addition, the tender stipulates that “with the rollout of Android mobile devices to neighbourhood policing officers in both forces, and mobile access to the Surrey and Sussex websites accounting for 75 per cent of all traffic, the community messaging system must support responsive design principles”.