5. For many years police forces were responsible for procuring and maintaining their own radio communications systems. In 1993, following a review, the Home Office concluded that many of the existing systems were obsolete and needed to be replaced (Figure 1). The Home Office also decided that there would be substantial benefits from procuring the new system on a national rather than a local or regional basis. We looked at the following areas: the structure of the procurement; the benefits of the new system; its affordability at local level and the safety of the new technology involved.3
Figure 1: Problems with existing police radios | |
Congestion | Existing radio channels are often very congested, with police officers unable to gain access when required. As a result there is a considerable level of suppressed demand because officers do not communicate on routine matters. More importantly, police officers sometimes lose the ability to call for rapid response when required. |
Flexibility | Allied to the problem of congestion, current radio systems are inflexible. Capacity cannot be re-assigned quickly to overcome congestion, or, when necessary, provide command and working-level channels. |
Security | The majority of police radio systems are unencrypted and messages can be intercepted with simple scanning receivers available cheaply (costing less than £100) from high street stores. This can result in police operations being called off, as suspects, monitoring police radio traffic, become aware of police surveillance. |
Interference | Interference from commercial continental radio users causes severe problems to police radio systems in the South and East of England and some way inland (to the extent that the West Midlands police told us that they too suffered from radio interference). |
Operational | With vehicle mounted radios operating on a different radio frequency to handheld radios, police officers in vehicles are frequently unable to communicate with police officers on foot, without the use of a second radio. |
Roaming | Lack of support for regional and national roaming prevents police officers maintaining radio contact with their control rooms when outside their force areas. This is particularly relevant for organisations such as regional crime squads, which need to operate across force boundaries. |
Management Information | Lack of information on the status and location of police officers can inhibit the ability of commanders to make operational decisions on, for example, deployment of police officers. |
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