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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39290383,00.htm

Notts police turns to tech for better crime handling
'Call handling software? Let's be 'aving you'

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 19 September 2008

Nottinghamshire Police is trialling new incident management tech that it hopes will improve its response times as well as information sharing across its various agencies.

The force will go live with the Vision PX call handling system from Fortek Computers early next year, and is currently customising the technology for its specific needs.

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The system will be used by around 100 command and control operators in the force's control rooms, which typically deal with around 2,000 calls per day.

Speaking to silicon.com, command and control project manager at force, Tony Eggleton, said the implementation is about "streamlining call handling and response to incoming calls from the public".

According to the force, the system will help make sure the public who contact them receive the most effective response to their query.

Eggleton said the software will also help improve the exchange of incident information with other systems, boosting efficiency. "Information that we are capturing can be quickly forwarded to other agencies," he added

In addition, once incidents have been registered as crimes, any follow-up investigations will be automatically linked by the system to the appropriate case number.

Eggleton added the system can also be used to review the way in which cases are dealt with - from initial contact to closing of a case - meaning the force can understand how to improve the way it handles cases.

The force is in the middle of a 12-month development programme for the call handling system in which 250 functionality acceptance tests will be carried out.

The system is also being used by West Mercia Police along with other UK emergency service organisations such as Merseyside Fire Service.