The South Australian Government has started rolling out tablet technology enabling the State’s police officers to undertake up to 95% of duties from within the field.
After a rigorous testing, procurement and trial process the technology – using Panasonic Toughbooks - has been fitted to every police car within the Elizabeth area, and is being utilised by Crime Scene Investigators.
The State Government has invested $7.4 million in the tablet technology over five years, replacing the previous fixed in-car data devices. The new tablets are entirely portable, providing police with the capability to capture, retrieve and submit information from within the field.
The government says the technology will increase productivity by an estimated 165 hours per day/ $3.3 million per annum, which equates to the deployment of around 29 extra sworn officers.
{loadposition peter}Panasonic Toughbooks were chosen as the technology provider following a 12 month trial, and the full rollout over a five year period is slated to be completed by 2020.
Police Minister Pete Malinauskas says the State Government is committed to building one of the “largest, most efficient and technologically advanced police forces in the State’s history”.
“We want police out from behind desks and onto the frontline. This technology increases the mobility of our police force; information will be more accessible, officers will be more efficient, and capabilities will be enhanced.”
The Minister says that, along with the implementation of mobile tablet technology, facial recognition technology is currently being rolled out and the body worn camera program is being progressed.
“This is in addition to the use of Portable Data Terminals (smart phones) and finger print scanning technology. We made an election commitment to give our police the high-tech tools of a 21st Century police force and we are delivering on that commitment.”
Superintendent Scott Allison from the SA Police information and technology section, says the police force has been able to “almost eliminate the need for our frontline officers to return to their stations to complete paperwork, providing them with technology where they have, in effect, a mobile office”.
“This gives us the benefits of both 'in-vehicle' computing and the portability to capture, retrieve and submit information in the field.
“It'll be an enormous benefit to enter data into our systems without having to return to a desktop computer at a police station. There's no doubt the technology will allow officers to access information more rapidly and overall increase the frontline capabilities of officers.”