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Going on record
Dawn Read discusses the importance of recording equipment and what we are likely to see in the future...
In your opinion what is the importance of recording equipment within the public safety sector (i.e. 1st, 2nd and 3rd responders).
Darrell Woodward, Marketing Manager, Red Box Recorders Ltd
Recording systems are of paramount importance in providing accurate, impartial and provable incident analysis and real-time incident management support. There is an increasing need to review operational procedures and identify areas for improvement. This can be made substantially easier by a modern recording system, capable of reconstructing and presenting an entire incident for detailed analysis as well as being used as evidence.
Adam Smith, Public Safety Marketing Manager at NICE CTI Systems Limited
To operational managers responding to the public’s needs, call recording is often not considered, let alone important, that is until something goes wrong! A member of the public complains, resources attend the wrong address, the wrong action is taken, an enquiry is launched, or even if everything goes right and legal teams play their role. Now, at this point the importance of call recording comes to the fore, enabling more informed decision-making, accurate understanding, fast verification and rapid dissemination or evidence.
For first, second and third responders the call recording system plays a big part in verification and support of their information, decisions and actions - from initial information receipt right through to incident closure. Any organisation involved in an incident has the potential to impact that event and as such should be able to justify their actions and prove what, when and where there involvement started and ended.
How has technology altered the way recording equipment is used?
Darrell Woodward, Marketing Manager, Red Box Recorders Ltd
Traditionally, recording equipment was always used as a safeguard, or to provide evidence or to find out what went wrong. Today, thanks to new real-time capabilities, recording can be used for real-time incident management support by Public Safety professionals in the field. Secure laptops can replay and analyse recordings on site, while advanced features such as Replay to Phone, can be used to deliver recordings directly to Commanders’ mobile phones for more informed decision-making.
Adam Smith, Public Safety Marketing Manager at NICE CTI Systems Limited
Using tape storage is the equivalent of flushing money down the drain. Tapes tend to be relatively inexpensive individually, but when the total costs are calculated to meet internal retention of evidence requirements, often between 6 and 10 years, the costs will normally run into hundreds of thousands of pound, let alone the time and costs of administration & storage.
One of the most beneficial advances in technology is centralised online storage. NAS and SAN products are capable of storing many terabytes of data online, in a secure and resilient environment. This means instant access to all of the data, all of the time.
This one technology can save organisations huge amounts of spend in ongoing administration and media purchases.
"By centralising storage of all call records we are saving at least £400 per month on tape costs alone," adds Insp. Carter. "With each NiceLog capable of recording 80,000 hours of calls locally and supported by central archive with a capacity for seven years of online data within the Storage Centre, a RAID 5 system, we will never have to buy or manage tapes again! ROI from our investment is expected within 18 months." Inspector Roger Carter, responsible for the Call Management Support Unit of Hampshire Constabulary
Another advance in technology is digital radio (Airwave) and digital telephony (ACD etc.), these systems offer recording vendors the ability to integrate and so present the user with communications records based on their systems and usable references, such as collar number, caller number, radio ID, etc. References that are used within incidents, logged by CAD systems, and a key to locating other forms of information related to an incident. This can save huge amounts of time, increase accuracy of data correlation and make ‘find’ rather than ‘search’ the key to recording. This is available today but is not widely utilised.
Internet Protocol (IP) is probably the single largest change in technology. Its vendors propose to offer IT standards and simplicity of deployment, support and integration, which at an infrastructure level have proved to hold true. Early adopter police forces are now deploying VoIP infrastructures and gaining from the benefits offered, however recording VoIP is not a straight forward as some vendors may suggest. Done well VoIP logging offers all the benefits the suppliers suggest – implemented poorly you will see major impacts on operational performance and network flexibility! – be sure before selecting a recording supplier!
What future technological advancements are we likely to see and why?
Darrell Woodward, Marketing Manager, Red Box Recorders Ltd
Integration, Integration, Integration. We are working hard to further integrate our recording systems with other Public Safety technologies, such as ICCS to make it easier to use and to provide an even more complete picture of an incident. We are integrating with AVLS to add location data to our recordings and linking with other information systems so that any post-incident analysis is sympathetic to exactly what information was made available at the time.
Adam Smith, Public Safety Marketing Manager at NICE CTI Systems Limited
• VoIP – rollout throughout organisations (replacement of copper)
• Ongoing flexibility, integration and savings in administration
• Multimedia (video, screen, TV, CCTV, email, SMS, Voice, etc.)
• Reducing costs and availability of multimedia devices & growing need for more timely information
• Mobile data – video, pictures, text
• Increasing operational effectiveness (police on the streets)
• Integrated personal recordings – voice and video
• Faster, more accurate logging of incident information
• Open access to all officers
• Fast access to incident records (audio & text) for complete information on an incident
• Automated alerting on spoken words, known suspects etc
• Fast, proactive alerting of events, individuals & situations based on verbal & Visual communications
• IP radio
• Reduced infrastructure costs & improved performance
When an emergency service / public safety agency is looking to replace or install recording equipment what are the key elements / facts they should look for?
Darrell Woodward, Marketing Manager, Red Box Recorders Ltd
One of the big issues today is longevity. Too many agencies have been caught out recently with expensive systems that have been made obsolete just a few months later, or they find that their new system won’t record emerging technologies such as VoIP. This is because recording systems have traditionally been based on custom-manufactured hardware, which is expensive and difficult to upgrade. Modern recording systems are based on standard technology such as PC hardware and Windows software. These are highly upgradeable more competitively priced and have a long operational life with the correct maintenance programme.
Adam Smith, Public Safety Marketing Manager at NICE CTI Systems Limited
Internet Protocol (IP)
Most recording vendors offer IP or VoIP recording, however with the many standards, methods of recording and infrastructure decisions to be made, this simple task of recording VoIP can become extremely complex, time consuming and expensive.
VoIP recording is simple, deploying it and managing the data, less so. It is essential to choose the vendor wisely – ensuring that they have a solution that works in a similar environment to the one on which it will be used. Ultimately confirm all the details of how the solution will be deployed, impact on servers and networks, and operations, in the event of system or component failures in both the network infrastructure and recording system.
VoIP is constantly changing and the vendor should be in a position to support the solution through the many changes in software revision and feature enhancements over the coming years.
ISSY - Airwave has brought about a revolution in the quality of radio communications, however very few forces are taking advantage of the other elements of the new digital system. It is possible to log all radio transmissions and their associated meta data (radio ID, alias, SDS data etc) meaning complete records and the ability to reconstruct whole incidents easily by the references you understand. This is not standard on most recording systems and if it is needed, it should be specified as part of the requirement.
Collar Number - Free seating and multiple shifts is the norm in the control centre. Most recording vendors will supply a basic logger that will record a position (channel) and provide no other reference or correlation to who operated that position etc. It is far easier to find communications and follow up on incidents and complaints if the key data related to the incident is available and linked to common references such as collar numbers, areas, call signs etc.
Quality - Citizen focus is at the heart of today’s control centre and managers are looking to contact centre technologies to enable measurement of their function and add value to their operations. There are many vendors of quality solutions in the market place and it is important to canvass them to get a feel for what is available and to help understand what your organisation really needs.
Recommendations here are around good definition of requirements, what are the goals to be achieved how will the system be used, what other systems does it need to integrate with, does it scale with the organisation, how easy is it to roll out and above all what support can be provided through installation and implementation. Much of a quality system is in the management of the project, people and processes. This part of the project must not be underestimated.
Ongoing viability of supplier - Often functionality may not be proven, it may be developed and on a spec sheet but has it worked in a ‘live’ environment? This can be an expensive discovery especially when it comes to go live day! A reference site and a solution that is similar to the proposed project should be seen before committing to a purchase order.
Another issue is the size and capability of a supplier; low cost suppliers often work at low margins meaning if they have issues with a large customer or a technology, that may consume more resource (and finances) than is available. Financial stability and long term commitment to the market is key – Investment in a recording system is significant and should not need to be made again for a long time. Make sure that the solution sold can be supported going forward, that they have the money and the plans to continue investment into the types of features and the required technologies that you will need in the future.
Multimedia - Today we have more multimedia devices than ever before – 12 year olds have G3 phones capable of sending movies, photos, and games to each other and industry is not too far behind. Pilots of mobile data, video, PDA’s on the beat, etc.
With any new communications you know you will need to have records of these communications almost as soon as they are deployed. Do you know if your recording vendor can support them?
Economies of scale - Budgeting for multiple projects under one infrastructure will not only ensure your data can be used throughout the organisation, it will also offer commercial rewards as well as simplicity of maintenance and administration. May be worth planning between control centres, professional standards, custody, interview suites, etc.
Operational Goals - Increase operational policing time
With a Government drive to ensure we have more police on the streets, the reality of this is to make sure our police force are more operationally effective. To this end initiatives seen within industry are being adopted to make sure Police officers spend more time on active duty rather than administrative and clerical duties.
To this end internal contact centres such as the Crime Recording Bureau at Hampshire Constabulary are being set-up so that crime reporting traditionally completed by officers returning to the station to type up reports, can now be conducted over a secure airwave (TETRA) connection, saving on administrative time and optimising policing effectiveness
Call recording is a vital element of this service, ensuring the crime recording process is accurate and complete, with a full audit trail and evidence disclosure for cases later required in court.
Reduced ongoing operational costs - Pressures on regional and national budgets, dictate that costs must be controlled and Policing is increasingly looking to automate or digitise manual tasks.
Once again standardisation and centralisation play their part. Centralised storage of calls means that the force can not only reduce the ongoing costs of purchasing tapes, but the massive costs of maintaining the manual tape changes and administration of the library.
