Force completes transfer to Airwave
Warwickshire Police completed its transfer to Airwave, the new national police radio system, when officers from the Southern Area (which covers Warwick and Stratford districts) began using it on 3 August.
Northern Area officers, covering the Nuneaton and Bedworth, North Warwickshire (Atherstone/Coleshill) and Rugby districts transferred to Airwave in July. They followed Operations officers (including the Road Policing Unit and Dog Section), who transferred earlier in the month.
When Operations officers transferred, Warwickshire was the 40th force in Britain to begin using Airwave and over 100,000 officers in total are now using the system.
Airwave is much more than just a replacement radio system - it is a digital mobile communications service for the police and other emergency services that is being introduced throughout Britain. It provides radio, telephone and data communications from a single handset.
Airwave improves the ability of the police to protect the public and also increases officer safety. It offers important advantages over the old system including:
Better coverage - in both rural and urban areas.
Superior sound - digital voice quality, enabling more effective communication.
Emergency assistance - officer safety is significantly improved through the ability to summon assistance without speaking. It will soon be further improved when the global positioning system (GPS) is implemented to pinpoint officer locations.
Security - scanning police radio conversations is no longer possible (the old system was always vulnerable to interception). Handsets that are lost or stolen can be remotely "stunned" by the Control Room and rendered useless.
Talkgroups - officers no longer need to operate on one or two busy radio channels. Many channels or "talkgroups" are available for a wide variety of tasks. Specialist resources such as the Air Support Unit and the Dog Section (as well as army bomb disposal teams) can now share the same talkgroup with other teams of officers, making communication and co-ordination much easier.
Versatility - the handset offers many opportunities now and in the future including for text communication with the Police National Computer (PNC). The handset's mobile phone and texting capabilities will also enable officers to communicate directly with the public. This will mean less demand on the Control Room. CCTV footage provided by the local Authority is also integrated into the Airwave system in the Control Room.
Talking to others - Warwickshire officers are able to talk to officers in other forces and, in time, will be able to communicate with the fire and ambulance services. Some parts of the ambulance service are already using Airwave and recently the service committed to introducing the system nationwide. Airwave is also used by agencies including the immigration and prison services as well as county emergency planning.
Resilience - the force Airwave service can be restored very quickly via a new second site that has been developed for use in the event of a major HQ Control Room failure.
As a result of transferring to Airwave in the later stages of the national roll-out programme, Warwickshire was able to introduce a later-generation Airwave handset and to make it personal issue equipment for every officer instead of requiring them to take handsets from a shared pool of equipment when on duty.
Chief Constable John Burbeck said:
"Airwave is a major step forward in our ambitious programme to provide a more citizen-focussed service and is already helping us to provide better policing.
"Our officers recently used the new service at the G8 summit and, more locally, at the God's Kitchen event. These large operations demonstrate how effective the new service really is, but it will also come into its own during routine day-to-day policing, when its many advantages including better reception and coverage will ensure that our officers can communicate more effectively with their commanders, controllers and other officers on the ground.
"This means that our officers can be out on patrol where they are needed for longer periods, and can be deployed quickly to where the public require their assistance. Airwave is a tool that will help local police to make our communities even safer."
PC Mark Heath from the Road Policing Unit said:
"On two recent pursuits - when it would normally be very difficult for the control room to hear us and for us to hear them - communication was much better because Airwave is so much clearer and it screened out the noise of our siren for the Control Room. On one of the pursuits we were able to directly inform other officers of our location and direction, so they were ready and waiting with a stinger device that was deployed to puncture a stolen vehicle's tyres. The pursuit ended without injury and the driver was arrested. This kind of co-ordination was much more difficult with the old radio system."
Michelle King, a Controller in the HQ Communications Centre said:
"We very badly needed a new generation of police radio. With the old system it was often like listening to another language because of the sound quality and you frequently had to repeat yourself to be understood. By comparison Airwave is very clear. My main job is to listen to the radio and to control and support officers on the ground. The quality of the Airwave system will make this much easier.
"With the old radio we were sometimes overwhelmed with requests, but direct access by police officers to the Police National Computer from their handsets is one of the many benefits that will free up Controllers to concentrate on their primary task of incident control.
"The encryption that Airwave introduced is also a great asset - with the old radio system, the information that you passed on often had to be limited because communication could be scanned by criminals.
"There are so many advantages to Airwave. I've been looking forward to its introduction for a long time."
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