BRACKNELL, UK. 23rd OCTOBER 2017 – When the City of London Police force wanted to deploy mobile technology to help officers spend more time with the public and reduce time-consuming administration and costs it turned to Panasonic and its rugged FZ-M1 Toughpad tablets.
After a series of pilot tests with different teams from the police force, the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 tablets were issued to 318 uniformed police officers.
Alongside the police radio, the tablets are the primary tool for officers when carrying out their duties. As well as being able to use the touchscreen and stylus to enter information directly onto the device, the officers also have access to USB keyboards when they would like to type extensive reports and a docking cradle to use the devices with a screen when at their desks – reducing the need for desktop PCs at police stations.
In particular the City of London Police wanted to deploy the latest mobile technology to cut down on administration and associated costs and to allow officers to spend more time in the community helping the public.
“We needed a device that was fit for purpose for 300 plus officers, so it needed to be rugged, waterproof and easy to use in daylight conditions,” explained Sergeant McDevitt, from the Mobile Working Project at the City of London Police. “We wanted the police officers to effectively have access to their desktop when working operationally, so a Microsoft Windows operating system was also important.”
When in the community, the device provides real-time access over 4G mobile connection to the force’s primary policing software from Kelvin Connect. This electronic notebook application, called Pronto, enables police officers to access information wherever they are, so that they can provide a better service to the public. It also lets them electronically capture, reuse, manage and submit information from the field, ensuring that high quality information is captured at the frontline and saving time previously spent on paper forms.
“We have already seen multiple benefits from the roll-out,” said Sergeant McDevitt. “Officers do not have to return to the station so much, so they can spend more time in the community. In addition, it has removed a lot of duplication of effort. Previously, officers would make notes at the scene and then return to the office to key the information into the system. We have also reduced the number of paper forms we use, for issuing tickets for example. This can now be completed electronically using the tablet. Over time we will continue to increase the number of processes that can be carried out on the device, further increasing the savings and productivity.”
Designed to be tested
The fully rugged Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 sets the new benchmark for outdoor tablets making it ideal for field workforces in challenging environments. With its capacitive 10-finger multi-touch outdoor display and flexible configurations via an integrated business expansion module, this Windows 10 Pro tablet has been designed to give work forces in the field freedom and efficiency. It benefits from a variety of connectivity options to ensure data is always available when needed and gives users the legacy options they require in a compact, fully rugged and lightweight form factor. Never before has so much flexibility and performance been packed into such a compact, durable tablet with such great outdoor viewing capability.
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