Western Australia Police Service

Policing an area as vast as Western Australia is a testing business. To extend the long arm of the law in the world's geographically largest law enforcement jurisdiction, the Western Australia Police Service is looking to new technology for a helping hand. The potential benefits were demonstrated during a recent pilot project conducted by the WA Police in conjunction with Fujitsu and Microsoft - with emphatic results.

The pilot used hand-held computers and high-speed wireless communications to provide officers on patrol with direct access to databases holding information about people and vehicles. Compared to the existing voice radio queries, the technology boosted the number of queries conducted during routine police operations, leading to a dramatic improvement in identification of people who were wanted by police for matters as serious as armed robbery and drug trafficking.

What's in a name?

Searching for details about particular individuals is a fundamental part of police work. For example, when the highway patrol pulls over a vehicle for speeding or dangerous driving, officers need to be able to check if the car is stolen and whether any of the occupants are wanted for other offences.

WA Police's existing capability to conduct name and vehicle searches is limited. If a suspect is in custody, the supervising officer or detective can conduct searches using a PC connected to the WA Police mainframe, which hosts the database covering people and vehicles of interest. However, on-the-spot checks such as the highway patrol example must be conducted by radio. Only two radio channels are dedicated to responding to queries called in by radio from anywhere in Western Australia.

"The current system probably only allows WA Police to follow through on five to ten per cent of queries," said Sergeant Ross Adam, a Team Leader in the WA Police Regional Operations Group. "The net is not as tight as we would like it to be. It's very difficult for one person to handle the number of enquiries generated by police officers and support staff. Checks are often queued ten-deep during busy times."

Mobile technology to the rescue

Sgt Adam said the recent technology trial was intended to investigate whether mobile solutions could improve the background check service.

"We saw this as an ideal opportunity to judge for ourselves whether hand-held computers and mobile communications were mature enough for our needs," he said. "If the pilot worked, we expected to save a lot of time and increase our effectiveness by conducting a higher volume of checks."

The pilot was first conceived in late 2003 when consultants from Fujitsu and Microsoft approached WA Police with the idea of building a prototype application for mobile name and vehicle searches.

After finding strong internal support within the force, the pilot was given the green light. Fujitsu and Microsoft worked together to develop the core application, while the police bought six off-the-shelf PocketPC hand-held computers that were connected to Telstra's high-speed General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile network.

The application allows police to enter name and vehicle searches on their hand-held devices. Queries are sent via a secure GPRS connection to WA Police headquarters. The solution was developed using Visual C# .NET and consists of a .NET Compact Framework Smart Client application running on the hand-held device and calling Web services running on a Windows 2003 Server host. The Web service module communicates with the police mainframe and return the results back to the requesting officer - all typically within 15 seconds.

A three-week pilot was conducted in June and July 2004. The test phase involved more than 30 frontline officers operating across three shifts with a 21-hour daily testing window (7am to 4am). The test team was drawn from the Regional Operations Group. This unit operates as a roving back-up across the Perth metropolitan area, helping local officers with incidents that require extra resources. Its diverse ambit made Regional Operations Group an ideal candidate to test the prototype system in a wide variety of police work.

Closing the net on crime

The pilot proved spectacularly successful. On one night, WA Police used the technology to conduct blanket searches on the drivers of all vehicles pulled over by a random breath testing patrol. The search facility enabled the police to catch a number of suspended drivers and, more dramatically, an armed robber on the run. It also helped identify a convicted drug dealer, resulting in a vehicle search that found trafficable quantities of drugs.

"Having a search application at our fingertips was very rewarding operationally, especially in a high-volume situation like the 'booze bus'," said Sgt Adam. "The computer-based searches were much faster than radio enquiries - a matter of seconds, rather than minutes - and the fact that there were no queues encouraged officers to conduct more searches. It is an exceptional tool for police work."

Sgt Adam said officers found the application to be intuitive and easy to use, ensuring training requirements would be minimal. Both the application and the GPRS data network performed well during the pilot, which encouraged further usage. "The pilot was a huge success: everyone who used the application endorsed it. The hand-held computers were considered conducive to the tactical need for frontline police to work through an interview-based technique."

Following the positive reaction to the pilot WA Police were continuing to examine the most appropriate hand-held computing devices. A number of application enhancements were also identified during testing.

The concept is expected to receive a boost following the recent appointment of Western Australia's new Police Commissioner, Karl O'Callaghan. In July 2004, Commissioner O'Callaghan announced the 'Frontline First' policy with the objective of prioritising operational activities and equipping WA Police with the best technology to support frontline police work.

"The pilot was so successful that we hope the provision of mobile capability will be catapulted to high priority," said Sgt Adam. "Mobile technology has the potential to greatly improve the effectiveness of the WA Police Service."