| It was
twelve months ago at the ACPO show
at the NEC, that Staffordshire’s
Chief Police Officer first saw a SMART
Board interactive whiteboard in action.
Recognising its varied application,
he was also quickly aware of the specific
advantages of this technology for
improving briefings to their officers
prior to going on the beat.
IT Manager, Simon Bryan, was tasked
with looking further into the possibilities
and options available. After a demonstration
Simon arranged a trial of SMART Board
interactive whiteboards at the Police
premises and put the requirement out
to tender.
This tender was won by Smarter Interactive,
an accredited reseller of the SMART
Board. Two plasma screens with SMART
Boar for Plasma Displays, and three
front projection SMART Board interactive
whiteboards were installed in the
main briefing rooms at Staffordshire
Police Headquarters. Whether the front
projection SMART Board or SMART Board
for Plasma Displays were used was
dependent on the space available,
the size of the viewable image required
and the ability to install the projector
in the ceiling.
The SMART Board for Plasma Displays
is an interactive overlay, which turns
a plasma display panel into a complete
collaborative tool. SMART Board overlays,
which are easy to fasten and secure
to plasma displays, allow users access
to computer based information in the
meeting/training room and record information
using a simple whiteboard interface.
The overlay retains the clear bright
image of the plasma display, whilst
giving users intuitive touch control.
The interactive display connects with
the computer to display the computer’s
image. Using the stylus provided,
or touch, the police at Staffordshire
can manipulate the displayed images.
Presentations can be annotated over
with automatic character recognition,
text and images can be dragged and
dropped, sections highlighted, and
all this work can be saved for future
use, or emailed to the attendees.
The plasmas with SMART overlays use
includes intelligence briefings for
each new shift. As a new shift comes
on at 7.00am they need to know what
has happened in the previous 24 hours.
This may include news of burglaries,
arrests, missing cars or particular
offenders.
The City of Stoke is split into eight
main areas, the Police Stations in
each of these areas have their own
intelligence officer responsible for
carrying out the briefings for their
own area. This “review”
information is pertinent to all areas,
however collating the information
from each area had historically been
carried out in Microsoft Word, which
had been a cumbersome task.
Today each shift’s intelligence
briefing is carried out on the SMART
Board. The review information is saved,
time and date stamped and can be stored
on their intranet, where it can be
accessed by all the other divisions.
“This new system works so well
because it reduces duplication of
information” explains Simon
Bryan. “Each station can view
all the city’s information selecting
out information appropriate to their
area. Officers are more involved in
the sharing of information, as the
boards certainly support collaboration.”
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Once
the regional intelligence officers
have carried out the briefings, they
use the SMART Board recorder which
comes with the board. This records
the visual and audio key points of
the presentation, ideal for those
who have missed the briefing.
Having used the SMART Board in their
briefing room, they soon realised
the benefit of being able to use it
during football match briefings at
the ground. With both Port Vale and
Stoke City Football Clubs in the Staffordshire
area, Staffordshire Police has a regular
presence in large numbers at the games.
The problem was the size of the SMART
Board which would make it hard to
transport to the football ground for
each match. The IT team realised that
briefing 200-300 Offices for each
home game called for a miniature SMART
Board. Reseller Smarter Solutions
demonstrated SMART Technology’s
interactive pen display product Sympodiumä,
which fitted this new requirement
perfectly.
Using a room at the football ground,
Staffordshire Police project the plan
of the football ground from Sympodium
onto a screen or wall. The small footprint
of the Sympodium makes it easy to
use a variety of premises, where the
image can be directly projected up
on to a screen or wall, for larger
audiences. With a Sympodium interactive
pen display placed on top of a podium,
desk or table, Police officers can
stand up and face their class while
using the tethered pen to control,
edit and annotate over computer-based
material. Any projector connected
to the ID250 then displays the ground’s
plan view onto a larger screen or
wall, so the other officers can easily
follow along. Problem areas of the
ground can be annotated over, to high
light trouble spots, and areas for
each group’s focus.
Staffordshire are also using SMART
Ideas, the concept mapping application
also from SMART Technologies. “For
missing persons investigations the
use of concept mapping is ideal”
explains Simon. “Taking the
missing person as the central point,
we can drill down into the various
eye witness accounts, suspects and
location information. Being able to
visualise it in this way offers a
significant advantage to us.”
“The key point of successful
Policing is collaboration and interaction.
The more Officer’s, information
and ideas that are bought together
and interacted with, the more likely
it is that we work successfully,”
explains Simon. Being the leading
manufacturer of interactive and collaborative
technologies, all the products from
SMART Technologies meet our working
requirements. For this reason we are
currently evaluating Bridgit, the
data conferencing application also
from SMART Technologies. Working from
the SMART Board or computer, Officers
in each of the eight Police Stations
using Bridgit can see the same displayed
information. Working collaboratively
who ever takes control can annotate
over the information, add to the information
and pass control to others while others
watch on from different locations.
Simon explains the benefits. “Bridgit
means that we can have our briefings
by data conferencing, which adds to
the flow of intelligence. Getting
the information in real time can make
such a difference to an investigation.”
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