Tri-force WAN removes boundaries

Home Office funding of almost £6 million to provide a single wide area network (WAN) across three force areas has been described as “fantastic news” by Nottinghamshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Simon Torr.

The WAN will enable staff across the tri-force collaboration of Nottinghamshire Police, Leicestershire Police and Northamptonshire Police to share information across the forces’ county boundaries.

It will simplify the overall IT network and speed up access to the forces’ information sharing systems.

The funding, spread over two years, will also enable the three forces to develop a telephony system linking their individual control rooms that handle 999 and 101 calls, which can then effectively offer a single consistent service. The aim is to ensure that at times of high call volumes and demand there is the resilience to make sure response times will not be affected and operators can spend more time dealing with calls, improving the police response to incidents.

The forces say that in addition, a multi-agency incident transfer system will enable information about incidents to be shared more quickly and effectively with the other emergency services and partner agencies to ensure the best coordinated and most appropriate responses are provided to the public.

The WAN will allow the forces to share a number of their support services, primarily by developing and installing integrated IT systems. This will help the forces save around ten to 20 per cent of their combined £28 million annual budget for these services.

Mr Torr said it was fantastic news for the public served by the three forces, adding: “Information is essential to how the police service can function effectively and the ability to share information across the region instantly is a very powerful tool in the fight against crime. Criminals do not recognise borders and we should not be bound by them either.

“Understanding the levels of our demand across the three forces allows us to ensure that we have the capacity to provide an appropriate service level to help maintain a consistent and effective response whenever the public requires our help.”

Initially, £2,224,000 will be received for 2016/17 with a further £3,536,000 available to the project in 2017/18. The project aims to “eliminate duplication between forces and ensure they have access to a larger pool of information to help officers make faster and more informed decisions”.

“The East Midlands has long been the pioneering region for collaborative policing in the UK, making the very best use of resources to provide the essential policing services which keep our communities safe,” added Mr Torr.

“We are there for the public at all times, following the same policing principles. We can demonstrate that we can offer an excellent consistent service across three forces, while also retaining the commitment to and delivery of local neighbourhood and response policing in all of our communities.”

The project has been awarded funding through the Police Transformation Fund, which is police-led through the Police Reform and Transformation Board. Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and chief constable representatives sit on the board alongside senior leaders in policing, with the final decisions on bids made by the Home Secretary.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has awarded a total of £23 million to 14 “groundbreaking projects” designed to “drive the transformation of policing in England and Wales”.

Set up as part of the Spending Review in 2015, the fund allocates extra investment to policing to help police reform and transform policing by introducing new and more efficient technology and capabilities to help forces respond to changing crimes and threats.

Nottinghamshire’s PCC Paddy Tipping said: “Policing is always changing and we must remain one step ahead by building robust intelligence systems and providing our frontline with the best possible tools available to do their job. Crime is becoming increasingly complex and we need to be innovative to meet the challenges this p