Met police firearms

[Techie1 + 2,024]

The mobile app is the first of its kind in UK policing.

 

Stop and searches are set to become quicker and more efficient with the launch of a new app for officers.

The mobile app, the first of its kind in UK policing, is being used by West Midlands Police and allows officers to record details of street encounters on their smart phones without the need to call contact centre staff.

The new piece of kit also has GPS which automatically records the location of each search.

The force believes the app will cut demand on force contact staff by almost 1,000 calls a month. 

Project lead, Temporary Inspector Dave Whordley, said the development will reduce delays and cut the length of time needed to carry out a street stop.

He added: “Officers will be able to input details directly via their phones and instantly receive a unique reference number. It means doing away with having to wait on the phone for contact centre staff to record details of the search.

“It’s been developed as part of our WMP2020 Mobility project which has already seen the rollout of more than 3,700 hand held devices to frontline officers.

“This app is the first of many which will be rolled out to help cut bureaucracy and help officers spend more time investigating crime and on the beat."

West Midlands Police has one of the highest stop and search recording accuracy rates in the country with a recent HMIC inspection finding that 93 per cent of all encounters had been noted correctly.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on WMP’s Mobility project, expects the new technology to further improve recording accuracy.

He added: “We’ve listened to operational officers about what apps will allow them to do their job more efficiently and effectively and allow them to remain out in the community where they should be, rather than having to keep returning to the station.

“We are reviewing a wide range of requests for apps and products, with a view to delivering some new apps to benefit frontline officers in the near future."

Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner Ashley Bertie said: “This new app will mean that officers are able to record important information on the move.

"We have ensured that stop and search is intelligence-led and have increased the number of arrests that it has produced, at the same time as reducing its overall usage.

“This has improved public confidence and will be boosted further by this new app.

“This is an important development that will continue to ensure that West Midlands Police remains at the forefront of reforming stop and search.”

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[Hyphen + 693]

Good idea, technology needs to be utilised more. Hopefully more forces will get on board with mobile devices as it does save a lot of time.

All I will say though is this definitely isn't the first of its kind. Seems a crazy idea having to ring in with things like this! We can do crimes, stop search, concerns and update logs on the go using apps.

[SD + 688]

Except it isn't the first of its kind. GMP have had it for 18 months. You can even put in email details and it sends the search record automatically. 

[Indiana Jones + 1,082]

Are they actually having a laugh?

We've had S&S on MDT for years. It'll give a location via GPS and I can email the form to the subject too - via the Pronto interface (ex Kelvin Connect). Even my old MDT which didn't have the GPS option and you had to give the location as a text input was still better than phoning the Contact Centre.

Additionally, I've never had to wait for Contact Centre staff etc. I'd complete a paper form in the old days and record a stop via my Airwave handset (status code > 16+1 IC code).

[Techie1 + 2,024]

I did wonder if the journalist made a mistake, but even their own press release says it: 

https://west-midlands.police.uk/news/3811/new-app-set-speed-stop-search-process

[Hyphen + 693]

Some cake fines being imposed on the media team I think.....

[obsidian_eclipse + 1,202]

We're finally catching up with the rest of the world. I had a mobile pda (running Windows CE) as my phone about 13 years ago which was used by Singapore police, it had a stylus display which could recognise handwriting and a camera attachment for taking photos of suspects on the street which could be compared to records, as well as various programs for linking to live databases for person checks, vehicles and so forth over 3g or wireless hot spots (I assume would be the police vehicle).. When I got it is was decommissioned so likely in service 15 years ago.. 15 years!

Only problem I had was having to charge it every day when normal mobiles lasted a week or so. But we all do that now anyway..

[Sir Penguin 648]

We've had it for a while now.

A little fiddly to use but once you've done it a few times it's much easier to complete. Things like OSCO's, Misper's, sudden deaths etc can be done from the mobile now which is good.

[Beaker 817]

I'm fairly sure Lancs have this, at least nobody could tell me where the S&S Paperwork was when I asked because they haven't needed it for so long.

[Hades + 1,693]

6 hours ago, Indiana Jones said:

Are they actually having a laugh?

We've had S&S on MDT for years. It'll give a location via GPS and I can email the form to the subject too - via the Pronto interface (ex Kelvin Connect). Even my old MDT which didn't have the GPS option and you had to give the location as a text input was still better than phoning the Contact Centre.

Additionally, I've never had to wait for Contact Centre staff etc. I'd complete a paper form in the old days and record a stop via my Airwave handset (status code > 16+1 IC code).

That's what I was thinking... Even before we had fancy Samsung devices circa 2011 I used to be able to do a stop form and print the receipt on my bluetooth printer!

[Traffic Rat + 287]

Cheshire had Stop and Search on its old MDTs around 2008.

[Sir Penguin 648]

Although I question the GPS bit where it says it automatically records the location.

Here we still have to manually input the location on our mobiles and is a little fiddly but still better than doing the old paper forms.