North Wales police get VoIP unified system

Police in north Wales are set to introduce an IP-based network that will include VoIP telephony and videoconferencing across all 75 of its stations in order to reduce communications spending.

A wide-area network (WAN) will cover the region while local area networks will also be in place in each station to ensure that they are capable of operating independently in case of a systems failure.

By getting the network to cover the entire area, the service hopes to save £100,000 a year by making use of the inter-based systems, as well as cut the amount of time officers are stuck behind desks or in meetings.

"The force's Western Division is particularly challenging - it can be a two hour trip across Snowdonia if you have to go to court or present a case to the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), and that's a huge cost in time," said Ian Davies, projects and customer services manager for North Wales Police.

But when they conducted these meetings through videoconferencing in a pilot of the scheme, Mr Davies said travel time was cut by 30 hours - equating to a saving of £34,000 and giving the officers more time on the street.

In addition, Mr Davies revealed the force were increasingly using VoIP desk-phones instead of computers in stations.

"We've got 2000 computers, they're hugely expensive to run, yet the average user only uses five per cent of a PC's capacity," he said.

"They really only use four applications - email, the records management system, duty management and the briefing system."

But now, using the IP handset's internet capability, officers can access the most-used applications such as the duty rota or records as they have been made available online through XML-based systems - and the police force save money on running costs.