Wellington Control Room, 1970s.Courtesy NZ Police Museum
POLICE TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
Operations Rooms
In the 1960s, larger local stations took emergency calls and dispatched police patrols from what were known as Operations Rooms.
Stations in places like Whangarei, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Nelson, Timaru and Dunedin all had their own Ops Rooms, while Auckland had Ops Rooms at the Auckland Central, Takapuna, Henderson and Otahuhu police stations.
In the days before computers or fax machines, stations were linked by a teleprinter system. To establish vehicle registration details required a teleprinter message to the vehicle registration office in Wellington and later Palmerston North, where manual card records were stored in banks of filing cabinets. Only in urgent situations was a phone call permitted.
These were pen and paper-based operations. Staff used hand-written forms to record job details from callers and keep track of patrol cars. No records were kept of the number of calls received.
1976 Wanganui Computer
In 1976, the Wanganui Computer was introduced. It stored vehicle registrations, criminal records and other information needed by Police.
It also included a new tool called Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD), which kept records of incoming calls from the public and kept track of what police patrols were doing.
The CAD system was only used in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. In each of these cities, the local Operations Rooms were combined into single centres equipped with CAD, called Control Rooms.
The rest of the country continued to use the manual systems, although they were able to use the Wanganui Computer to do checks on people and cars.
Although the Wanganui CAD system was a major step forward, it had no mapping system and Police continued to rely on map books and local knowledge to get patrols to the correct address.
Like the Operations Rooms in the smaller centres, the Control Rooms were staffed exclusively by police officers. In the late 1980s a few civilians started to work in the control rooms, but the role largely remained the preserve of police officers.
1996 – Comms Centres Introduced
In 1996 a major change took place. By this time the workload in Control and Operations Rooms had grown to such a level that the ageing Wanganui Computer and the manual recording systems could not cope.
It was decided to replace the Wanganui computer. With the closure of this system, a replacement CAD system was needed. Police chose a new state-of-the-art CAD system, built and maintained by Intergraph Public Safety Ltd.
This was part of a complete reorganisation of Police Control and Operations Rooms, which brought together radio, telephone, mapping and dispatch capabilities into a new Communication and Resource Deployment (CARD) system.
CARD combined the functions of all the local Operations Rooms and the larger Control Rooms into three purpose-built Communications Centres in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch.
Civilian staff
Due to the size of the three centres, it was not possible to staff them exclusively with police officers. Training of civilian staff to work in Communications Centres started in earnest in 1995. Since that time the staffing has moved from nearly 100% police officers in 1995, to 80% civilian and 20% police officers today.
Major changes
Massive changes in technology and training have taken place since the introduction of CARD.
- Police now employ permanent dedicated specialists in the Communications Centres who are selected for the specific requirements of the role, and who undergo extensive training for the job.
- The technology provides the latest computerised mapping, call management and radio and telephone systems.
- Transactions are recorded and measured, giving precise performance data.
- Police can account for every call presented to the Communications Centres.
- Police patrols log on at the start of their shift and Dispatchers know where units are at all times – a huge benefit to staff safety.
- The Communications Centres can handle multiple calls and incidents at the same time, for any part of the country.
From map books and teleprinters to one of the best technical systems in the world, Police emergency communications have come a long way in 50 years.
Thanks to Inspectors Andy Brill and Kieren Kortegast, Senior Sergeant (Rtd) Colin Graham and Chief Inspector (Rtd) Sherwood Young.
