Police Scotland has revealed plans to implement a new digital contact platform for its 999 and non-emergency 101 services.
This follows a seven-year deal between the Scottish Police Authority and unified communications specialist Cinos, with an initial capital spend of £1.2 million and ongoing revenue costs of £20.7 million.
The platform will replace the existing analogue telephony infrastructure. Police Scotland said this will make public contact more accessible, relevant and responsive, and provide better quality data to support workforce planning for its national service centres.
Andrew Hendry, chief digital information officer, who is leading on Police Scotland’s digital transformation, said: “The needs of the public will always be at the heart of any new service design and we aim to provide modern and easy-to-use options for people who need to contact their police service.
“This enabling technology is part of our wider digital transformation and will form a foundation across Police Scotland that other parts of the organisation will utilise and build upon.”
He said Cinos will provide the core platform, which will be implemented over 20 months.
Focus on resilience
“Its initial focus will be around the provision of resilient technology within our contact centre and it will then widen out into other business areas,” he said. “More advanced digital capabilities will be explored once we have completed our service design and all the necessary public contact and engagement has been completed."
Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins said: “This significant investment in new technology for our service will further protect and strengthen our emergency 999 and non-emergency 101 services for the public.”
He added: "The new digital system will provide greater resilience for these critical services and enable us to develop further ways the public can engage, making it easy, convenient and safe to contact the police.
“Proposals to introduce additional contact methods will be subject to consultation and engagement with our communities and I would emphasise that face-to-face and telephone contact through 999 and 101 will always be available. We know that being visible and making personal contact is important to our communities.”
Image from iStock, Mrdoomits
