3.27 Prior to the development of the full business case, police forces were asked to examine the potential impact of a new radio service on their efficiency. Because many forces were already conducting activity analysis showing how much time officers spent on particular tasks this was used as the basis of the impact assessment work. The activity analysis suggested that around 37 per cent of uniformed officers' time is spent in the police station. Figure 17 shows how the time in the station is spent.
3.28 A later report in 2001, on the typical pattern of an officer's day, confirmed these findings8. If Airwave could help bring about a 10 per cent saving in the time spent by officers in the police station, this would be the national equivalent to deploying an extra 1200 officers on the streets, at an approximate cost of £37 million.9Thames Valley Police, who played a key part in this initial work, was confident that this level could be reached. Indeed it anticipated eventual efficiency gains of up to 30 per cent. The base-line work focused on uniformed police constables only; if uniformed supervisors and CID officers were to make the same efficiency gains, then the researchers concluded the savings could be doubled. These efficiency gains all depend on Airwave delivering all the necessary functionality and on police forces making the best use of the services available.
3.29 This early analysis might have been built on sooner. Although the 1998 work was acknowledged in the full business case for Airwave, and there was a clear intention to seek additional benefits, the work was not progressed until after contract signature. There were insufficient staff available to PITO at the time to take the benefits work forward. Other areas such as developing the technical specification and negotiating the contract had to take priority.
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8 Diary of a Police Officer PA Consulting November 2001.
9 1998 costs. Source Thames Valley Police Business Benefits Analysis.