APD in Talks to Mobilise Our Nations Police

APD Communications announced recently (15.7.08) that the company is working with police forces throughout the UK, regarding providing officers with unparalleled access to information on the move. The move follows the Home Office's announcement that over £50 million has been set aside to equip 10,000 police officers with access to mobile data.

Currently APD has one of the highest police usage rates in sector, with deployments in 42 of the 53 UK police forces. Over 9,000 officers currently rely on APD's POLARIS mobility platform alone to increase the accuracy of data collection, and reduce response times in the field via handheld and in-vehicle devices.

"We have been working with the UK's police forces for over 12 years now, helping to mobilise critical data from a range of sources. We are dedicated to cutting down the unnecessary bureaucracy that requires officers to be away from the frontline. Everyone agrees that we need to get more officers out on the street again, helping the public. But with only 27 of the 53 forces in the UK expected to benefit from the scheme, we would hope that this round of funding is the first step to mobilising our police rather being a one-off investment," said Christine Stevens, APD.

"The POLARIS system is exceptionally popular with police officers, due to the platform's ability to integrate a wide range of systems, in-house intelligence, Command and Control systems and national databases and then present the information through one simple application. Our extensive range of services can also support the business transformation that necessarily goes alongside a change of this nature, optimising our customers' chances of a successful project," concluded Christine.

POLARIS is carrier independent, supporting a range of networks including GPRS, 3G and TETRA Airwave, so that officers in the field can chose the network(s) that best suit their security, bandwidth and performance requirements. The system is used extensively with APD's resource location products including: Co-Ordinator (resource location management software) and GPS-enabled devices such as TETRA radios and INCA 2.

The POLARIS platform can be deployed in a range of ways including:

i) In-vehicle touchscreen Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) - real-time vehicle checks

ii) Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) - real-time case updates; electronic collection of suspect information

iii) Dockable Tablet PCs - handheld computers with the functionality of full PC system

iv) Electronic Portable Travel Document Reader - accurate document checking

Using POLARIS officers can use pre-defined forms (such as Person Stop, Vehicular Accident etc), which have been developed using APD's forms editor designer tool to save time and eliminate the need for paperwork to be carried around.