New Zealand Police
by Andrew Brill
| Andrew Brill is a Sergeant for the New Zealand Police and the Training Manager for the Northern Communications Centre in Auckland. |
| Related Articles: Victoria Police Tasmania Fire New South Wales Fire |
| Photographs: (select thumbnail to view detail image) |
The various divisions of the New Zealand Police are pictured in front of the Auckland Harbour Bridge: patrol officers, a dog handler, a helicopter of the Auckland air support unit, and the two boats that make up the maritime unit. New Zealand Police |
New Zealand Police Northern Communications Centre in Auckland is located on the upper floor of this downtown building. New Zealand Police |
This article can be found on
page 44 of the July/August 1998
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Since 1886, members of the New Zealand Police have been fulfilling their oath to "see and cause Her Majesties peace to be kept and preserved." Their "beat" is an island nation of 3.7 million people located in the South Pacific Ocean 2200 km. (1320 mi.) east of Australia and 7500 km. (4500 mi.) southwest of Hawaii.
New Zealand has a slightly greater land area than the United Kingdom, but only one sixteenth of the population. Located between 33 and 45 degrees South the climate is generally temperate (but can vary between Alpine and Sub-tropical depending on where you are).
Most New Zealanders live in the main cities, (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Hamilton) with by far the greatest concentration of people being in the Auckland metropolitan area, which has a population approaching 1 million.
The official languages are English and Maori but, particularly in Auckland, which has the worlds' largest Polynesian population, the languages of the Pacific islands and Asia are widely spoken.
New Zealand has a style of government, law and policing which are based on the British system, and is a member of the British Commonwealth. New Zealand Police is a single national police service of around 8000 members (6000 sworn and 2000 non-sworn).
Administratively the police is divided into four regions (Northland, Midland, Central and Southern) each comprising a number of police districts. District Managers (until recently known as a District Commanders) usually hold the rank of Superintendent and are responsible for all aspects of operational policing within their district.
As one of the few remaining unarmed police services in the world, the New Zealand Police are proud of their ability to perform their duties without routinely carrying guns. However, although a few years behind most of the world in levels of crime and violence, New Zealand is not immune to the universal problems of big city policing. Youth crime, alcohol and drug abuse, the effects of welfare dependency, racial tensions and unemployment provide the same challenges in the South Pacific as in the rest of the world.
Finance or, more correctly, the lack of it is also a problem. Faced with the inevitable demands by the government for public service agencies to "do more with less" the police have had to take a long look at their methods and to find ways to do things smarter. One significant initiative is a commitment to use information technology to streamline information flow and reduce the amount of paperwork. This strategy, known as Policing 2000, has a number of threads, including a major computer system to be known as INCIS (Integrated National Crime Information System). The aim is to create a (relatively) paper free police service. Separate from INCIS but complementary to it the Computer Assisted Resource Deployment System (CARD), which centralizes all communications functions and controls police resource deployment for the entire country.
In the past, each police district handled its own incoming emergency (1-1-1) and general calls for service, and dispatched patrols. This meant staff at police stations in the main towns performed duty as dispatchers/calltakers for their own areas. In the smaller centers, with low call volumes the workload was not high enough to justify dedicated communicator/dispatchers. Staff working at these stations were also responsible for other duties such as dealing with public counter queries and prisoner processing. This practice meant that neither function was given 100 percent attention, and had obvious safety and customer service quality implications.
Before 1997, only the cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch had a CAD system. (Introduced in 1976, it provided excellent service, but was beginning to show is age when compared to current systems).
With advances in communications technology, in particular the police national phone and data network, and the land mobile radio network, it became possible to establish a centralized communication center which would handle all phone and radio traffic nationwide.
The CARD system is designed as a single "virtual" communications center, with its functions distributed over three physical locations (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch).
The use of three centers provides redundancy in the event of a catastrophic failure of any part of the system. Each center is similarly equipped, and normally handles traffic from within its own geographic area. However in the event of an overload or failure at one center, calls are automatically diverted to the others. Each center will have the ability to enter event information into the CAD system for all areas and the information is presented to the correct dispatcher regardless of which center actually took the call. The centers also have the ability access all radio channels and in the event of a total failure or evacuation the alternate center can maintain full service with very little delay. (A recent trial evacuation of the Wellington center occurred during a vehicle pursuit in the middle of Wellington city. A dispatcher in Auckland was able to log into the Wellington CAD and take over control of the channel with virtually no disruption to operations.)
The Intergraph I/CAD system working on a Windows NT platform was selected. The software was configured and supplied by IPS to NZ Police requirements. It comprises I/Calltaker and I/Dispatcher and I/Supervisor workstations in the communication centers I/Satellite workstations provide remote event entry and reporting capability at police stations throughout the country. This means that officers at local stations can input event information directly to the CAD system, such as when a citizen calls at the public counter to report an incident that requires a patrol to attend. The remote workstations also run Shifttrack, a rostering software package which calculates shift rosters and provides automatic upload of patrol crew details and unit identity information to I/CAD at the start of a shift.
The CAD system uses a high level of redundancy. The CAD database server which records event data and unit status copies all information to a secondary server which provides immediate backup in the event of a main server failure. All data is regularly (every few minutes) passed across the data network to a third server located in one of the other centers. This off site storage of information means that even in the event of a total system failure or destruction of a communications center, no more than a few minutes worth of transactions will be lost.
In addition to the CAD and advanced mapping functions available on I/CAD, the communications center workstations also provide direct access to a number of other Police computer systems. These appear in application windows which can be maximized when required. Access is available to the National Law Enforcement computer which stores criminal and traffic conviction history, vehicle, driver and firearms registration details, vehicle, person and property of interest records, family violence address database, national message switching, and police file tracking system.
Dispatchers also have access to the National Intelligence System (NIS) and the Police Human Resource Information System (PHRIS) which maintains police staff records. Most of these functions will eventually be replaced by the Integrated National Crime Information System (INCIS) which is presently under development.
The CARD system accepts incoming telephone calls from several sources: Emergency 1-1-1 calls are received from acceptance points operated by Telecom New Zealand (the country's main telecom service provider). General calls made to local stations are transferred to the center by the operators, and some calls are automatically diverted to the center from stations which do not provide a 24 hour operator service. Calls from cellular phones on the *555 service for reporting traffic emergencies are received directly at the centers, as are calls from other emergency agencies (Fire, Ambulance, Airport crash/fire).
Incoming calls are processed by an Ericsson automatic call distribution system, and presented to communicators in sequence dependent on call priority and time in queue. Any calls not answered within preset time limits are automatically directed to one of the backup centers for action.
Full ANI/ALI is available on 1-1-1 calls, and the originating number, location and subscriber details automatically populate the CAD event screen and are available for address verification. Telephone and radio calls to and from workstations are recorded by Racal digital recorders and are available for instant replay. Control of radio channels is by Ericsson RCT software which gives on-screen control of audio, channel selection and channel linking.
The existing NZ Police land mobile radio network was used for the CARD system, with a few adjustments to repeater coverage areas to assist in efficient channel management. The radio network uses a combination of VHF and UHF portables. The network uses a series of linked repeaters with voting receivers and scanning mobile receivers to achieve wide area coverage without the need for mobiles to switch channels when moving between repeater coverage areas. Communication between portables and mobiles is achieved by linking repeaters. (Main dispatch channels are permanently linked, while others may be linked or unlinked by dispatchers, to meet operational requirements.) The standard field equipment at present is the Motorola Saber SX20-0-0 portable for UHF and the locally made Tait T700 series mobile for VHF.
In many agencies worldwide there is heated controversy over the need for police dispatchers to have "been there and done that," i.e. to be sworn police officers, before they can dispatch patrols. New Zealand is no different. In the past, all dispatchers were sworn officers, seconded (sometimes willingly, more often not) for a period of about 15 months to the communications center or operations room.
As the job becomes more complex and the equipment more sophisticated, it is no longer feasible to continue this practice. In the year since the commissioning of the system, the staffing ratio has gone from 90% sworn to a ratio of 50% sworn, 50% non-sworn. In the future non sworn staff will undoubtedly be a significant majority. The NZ Police communication centers exercise a command and control function rather than just dispatch. There will always be a need for operational front-line experience in the center, however, the practice so far indicates that properly trained, professional non sworn staff who see the communications center as a career rather than a temporary assignment, are as good as, and frequently better than a temporary sworn officer. From the point of view of continuity of experience, and the reduced need for constant re-training, the use of permanent, enthusiastic specialists (sworn or non-sworn) makes good sense.
The introduction of CARD has not been without problems. Apart from the fine tuning and the inevitable technical "glitches" that affect any major project, most of the problems encountered have been "people" problems rather than technology.
Like everywhere else in the world, New Zealand cops are a conservative bunch of people. As a group they don't like rapid change. One of the most significant problems associated with the implementation of CARD was that of selling it to the users. The need for careful training, explanation and understanding of field staff cannot be over-emphasized.
There is a natural concern by officers who have been used to policing their district in their own way since "Adam was a boy," that they are suddenly going to be told what to do by some "wet behind the ears" civilian from the big city.
This atmosphere of suspicion can produce a self fulfilling prophecy when mistakes by communications center staff are blamed on "the new system." (It is irrelevant that the same sort of mistakes also happened under the old system!) Once the system loses credibility with users they refuse to use it correctly. The number of problems consequently increases. This is held up as proof of the original premise that the system is flawed! It requires a major education and bridge building effort to recover from this situation!!
The CARD system has been operational for just over a year (the Auckland center celebrated its first birthday on 24 February 1998). The process of taking over communications responsibility for districts which previously had no experience with CAD systems is continuing, and full national coverage is scheduled for June 1998.
Beyond June `98, the New Zealand Fire Service are scheduled to move their communications facilities into the same centers. Both services will then use the same CAD system and radio, phone and data networks.
Developments scheduled for the next few years include upgrades of existing systems and software, and the introduction of new communications systems, including SMACS (Status Management And Communications System) which will allow field units to update their status using tone signaling over voice radio channels. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), paging systems and Mobile Data Terminals are all in the pipeline.
