WA Police gets a world-class system

With the full implementation of Police Metropolitan Radio Network project in 2007, Western Australia Police (WAPOL) will have one of the most efficient communications and dispatch systems in the world.

WA's geographic area makes WAPOL the largest police jurisdiction in the world covering about 2.5 million km2, with over 5000 police officers and 1000 police staff serving a community of 1.9 million people.

Before 2002, communications was based at police headquarters in the central business district area of Perth. The facility was responsible for managing general dispatches to the metropolitan area and limited dispatching to country areas.

Radiocommunications was provided by a UHF network in the metropolitan area and a combination of UHF and HF throughout the rest of the state. Task management was provided by an ageing, in-house mainframe messaging system.

The facility received all 000 calls for police and provided a general answering point for police enquiries and general dispatching. Major incident management and the coordination of sensitive operations were conducted from a facility that also had a dual purpose for training.

In 1998, WAPOL undertook a review of its communications infrastructure and gained government support for a major upgrade to its systems.

In 2000, WAPOL began designing and implementing the C3 system called the Computer Aided Dispatch Communications (CADCOM) project.

This had two main aims - establishing a new emergency communications centre with the required communications infrastructure and providing robust tools to operational police in the form of secure communications, automatic vehicle location systems and in-field mobile data systems.

During the implementation, due to technical and commercial issues, it was decided to excise the radio and mobile data component of the project and focus on the communications centre and computer aided dispatch system.

The radio and mobile data components formed the basis of the Police Metropolitan Radio Network (PMRN) project which was started as a second phase in 2004.

From the beginning it was decided only proved and demonstrable technology would be considered in the design to guarantee the utmost reliability and compatibility between the PMRN and the existent WAPOL infrastructure.

The PMRN project consists of a voice radio network, a limited mobile data service and an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system for the greater metropolitan area of Perth.

The radio network is designed to provide reliable trunked, encrypted voice communications across 10,000 km2 of the greater Perth metropolitan area and:

• Operate with WAPOL's country network, other jurisdictions and other WA emergency services;
• Replace all base sites; and fixed station, in-vehicle and handheld radios in the metropolitan area.

In addition, a limited mobile data service allows encrypted messages for such information as:

• Name, address, firearm and vehicle registration details to be obtained by an officer in the field;
• Messages from the communications centre to individual units; and
• Dispatch information from the CAD system and status updates, eg, arrival at the scene of an incident.

The data system provides similar coverage as the voice radio network. Both systems are capable of substantial increases in capacity and coverage to meet future requirements.

The automatic vehicle location system coordinates police resources by:

• Using GPS technology to track and locate tasking vehicles;
• Enabling GPS data and vehicle identifiers to be displayed on the communications centre CAD tactical mapping system;
• Enabling post vehicle movements to be plotted using logged GPS coordinates, improving reporting and audit capabilities;
• Recording vehicles' movements to improve accountability;
• Providing dynamic position polling of vehicles.

The PMRN systems will be integrated into the existing dispatch architecture:

• Computer aided dispatch (CAD) system;
• Geographic information system (GIS);
• Decentralised remote desktop application (CADLite) giving access to CAD functionality to 4700 workstations throughout the state.

From the outset the PMRN project maintained a close liaison with other policing jurisdictions, nationally and internationally so that lessons learned by these organisations could be incorporated into the WAPOL system. For example:

• A potential radio interference problem between the voice and data frequencies. Lessons were learned from the Victorian police who had discovered the need to increase the separation of voice and data operating frequencies to avoid interference. By increasing the data frequency from 430 to 800 MHz required an additional radio tower to maintain coverage, however the interference issue and subsequent design issues were resolved.
• Technically, the transition from an analog network on 450-470 MHz to a digital system was seen as a major challenge. Other agencies had met similar challenges by acquiring adjoining band and using radios capable of accessing the legacy and new digital band. WAPOL also implemented this solution, acquiring the 500-520 MHz band. New radios were issued to police officers to use on the existing network before moving to the new digital network.

When the combined PMRN system is fully implemented across the greater Perth metropolitan area in 2007, it will give police a versatile digital voice radio and data system and give the 'edge' to frontline police.