The South Wales Police expands control room solutions
The South Wales Police have extended their 15 year relationship with Capita with the addition of the firm’s ControlWorks technology. The technology seeks to improve control room response times by managing a range of decisions automatically while providing a single viewpoint from which to manage operations.
The South Wales Police force ranges over a relatively small 812 square miles, just over 10% of Wales. The region is one of the most heavily populated in the country – the force provides policing service to 1.3 million people (42% of the country’s population). The region policed is diverse, covering two of the country’s largest cities, Swansea and the capital city, Cardiff. The force also polices 63 of the 100 most deprived communities in Wales. Each year the police force responds to 430,000 incidents, receives over 200,000 emergency 999 calls, makes over 38,000 arrests, and deals with over 87,000 crimes.
Capita Communications and Control Solutions provides a range of services and solutions aimed at critical emergency services. One of the firm’s solutions is ControlWorks. The solution provides computer-aided despatch and customer relationship management functionalities – much of which is automated. The functionalities aim to improve the decision making for call handlers, which down the line decreases the overall response times to incidents. Additional benefits of the system include the capability to manage operations from a single viewpoint, including resource planning and geographical mapping, automatic updates about vulnerable and repeat callers, and making processes more effective.
Capita has worked with the South Wales Police for more than 15 years, supplying the force with control room solutions. The addition of ControlWorks technology to the forces capabilities aims to improve the unit's efficiency and service to the public. Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis says: “The introduction of Control Works is an important milestone for South Wales Police. We have worked with Capita to develop a system that not only makes the force more accessible but also provides our call handlers with the capability to provide a far more tailored and accurate service to members of the public contacting our Public Service Centre (PSC). It will allow us to be more efficient and effective and enable us to better align our use of technology to frontline service delivery.”
Paul Eggleton, managing director of Capita Communication and Control Solutions, adds: “Our long-standing partnership with South Wales Police has been built on trust, flexibility and a desire to innovate and enhance its operational efficiency and level of service to the public. We believe the implementation of ControlWorks is key to this process – it will generate significant operational efficiencies and improve the service provided by control room operators to the public. We look forward to supporting South Wales Police in the years to come as it continues to seek ways to innovate and overcome the challenges it faces.”
Capita has also been working with the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MAWWFRS) and the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS), providing the services with control room solutions.
