Met Police to track every officer using GPS

[FrequentFlyer]

Of course, I assume that it won't work while they're sitting around in the office/court etc.

[Darren]

They already book in/out of such locations via the radio.
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Darren Griffin

[stuart]

[Darren]

Crikey, when I first joined we didn't even have enough radios for every officer on foot and this was the late 80's! It was first come first served for the beat bobbies and if you didn't have a radio you had to phone in every hour!

I even had a cape issued. Officers from neighbouring forces at my training centre had all the kit, HV jackets, flat caps, a range of waterproofs short and long in Goretex etc and we had one heavy wool overcoat and a cape.

You couldn't make it up! We even got to the stage where community officers did the rounds in their own cars, laughable now but a complete joke at the time.
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Darren Griffin

[stuart]

I must admit Darren, I used to two piece Pye Pocket radios. like they used in Z-Cars. The Tx was good for monitoring rooms with a ruler and rubber band on the pressel switch, but then the whole network (usually 6) heard it all. Had the cape, very handy for shopping. Still got some kit, unmarked, which comes in handy in the car/van.

[kevinx]

[Earthmover]

Already the "Authorities" have the facility to have a flying camera no bigger than a fly which can track you anywhere. So why I may ask do the old bill or others need to track us at all? I can envisage (No don't laugh) that one day in the UK that babies will be chipped like a dog or cat, and people will accept oit as the norm. The authorities - local councils etc - can monitor your phone calls, and access your bank account and as was shown in the national press this week covertly spied on people for three weeks who they think wanted to put their children into a school they liked. lots of you may laugh at this type of attitude but then again why should you have to fill in a questionaire of 50 questions so you can travel abroad. Do like I did and have a visit to Auschwitz. because you can't say what type of government we will have in 20 years time. This one of the advantages of GPS.

[bignick]

I don't know why this news has been such a big deal, both on websites like this and in the national media last week.

While I appreciate that the Met is the country's largest police force, loads of others have already had Airwave GPS tracking for some time. In the area I work, our personal-issue terminals have had GPS locating activated since 2006.

In my view, it has definate benefits. For response: it's much easier and quicker to know where officers are and who is closest to an incident. For customer service: we can now provide more accurate ETAs to a caller (very helpful in an emergency situation when a caller is distressed). For officer safety: you can send backup to a location ASAP even if the officer is not in a position to give a verbal location.

All in all, I'm a big fan and I'm sure most coppers would feel the same. The only ones who stand to lose out are the lazy, workshy officers who want to hide away and avoid jobs!

[999tommo]

Just tripped over this thread and thought I would stick in my two penneth worth too.

We have had Airwave or Tetra as it should really be called, for a few years now. About 18 months ago, they added the AVLS (Automatic Vehicle Locating System) and APLS (Automatic Person Locating System). Our officers' Tetra (Airwave) radio was fitted from manufacture with the GPS technology, and the ability to use it was added to the control system as I said about 18 months ago.

We have used it very successfully, particularly when you have several officers attending one incident and resources need to be co-ordinated, perhaps to put a cordon around an area, whilst a dog handler attends. The control room knows exactly where each of us is and in conjunction with their mapping system, can tell us to move to a particular place for best use.

A major plus point is with the emergency button which all Tetra radios have fitted. If the APLS system is not used by a particular Police Force, the pressing of this button would show that the officer needs urgent assistance, but unless that officer is physically able to speak, they will not be able to advise the control room of their location and therefore their last known position will be used as a start point for someone to find them.

With APLS in use like we have, pressing the emergency button would not only show that the officer needs urgent assistance, but will plot their exact position on the mapping system in the control room, therefore allowing resources to be sent straight to the right place.

Personally, I think it is a magnificent evolution in the Tetra radio network and all Police Forces should use it.
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Tommo...

Regularly absent, but still here in spirit !

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