West Midlands Police take delivery of latest batch of TETRA handsets from Sepura

Sepura have recently delivered their 100,000th hand-held TETRA radio for use on the Airwave network to the West Midlands Police (WMP).

This milestone shipment marks the completion of a programme by WMP to replace its analogue personal radios with Sepura hand portables.

The force originally selected the Sepura radios after an extensive evaluation process to find a hand-held that was best-suited to the new Airwave emergency radio system. Tests included a full user trial, as well as simulation exercises to identify how many talk groups and accessories could be accommodated.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities of the Sepura hand-held have proven invaluable in enabling central control to match resources to immediate demand, while knowledge of an officer’s exact location has been critical in helping prevent injury or loss of life at incidents. Officer safety is further enhanced by a unique feature of the sGPS device – the fact that it does not need to be in direct line of sight with satellites. This is especially important when policing heavily built-up city centres.

“When an officer presses the emergency button, their exact location is routed through to our OASIS Command and Control system,” said Max Corney, Communications Manager for WMP. “The officer is identified on the mapping screens and we are able to respond to their request very quickly and efficiently.”

David Taylor, UK Sales Director at Sepura added: “We are delighted that West Midlands Police are the recipients of this milestone delivery.”