Contact Management Platform update

Joint statement issued on behalf of Chief Constable Francis Habgood, Thames Valley Police and Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney, Hampshire Constabulary.

The opportunities that technology offers to policing now and in the future are staggering, both in terms of providing a more effective service to the public and helping us to better respond to increasing demand and ongoing financial challenges.

We are only at the beginning of exploiting these opportunities and the Contact Management Platform is just one example of how we are doing this in Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary.

A foundation for the future, this platform will transform police-public contact by moving our forces from multiple systems to one joint one, providing data at our fingertips to allow a quicker assessment of calls for service and a personalised response to those who need it.

The Contact Management Platform has now been developed and we are excited by the outcome and importantly the feedback that our staff have given.

The work to transition from our current systems has now started however, when put into our existing IT environments the CMP is not currently performing to the standard we expect or require. Based on this, both our technology partner, Microsoft, and our own programme developers have determined that more time is required to ensure that wherever possible, all preventable issues are managed ahead of the system being implemented.

Every day in policing we make risk based decisions for the protection of the public and our people and our approach to our technology programmes is no different. We have been clear from the start that we will not introduce the system until it has been rigorously tested and is fully operational.

As a result, we have jointly decided with our respective Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) that the introduction of the Contact Management Platform into both Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Constabulary will now begin in spring next year and the PCCs have agreed to financially support this extended period of testing.

This decision has come as a result of significant discussion and expert assessment.

We are all keen to reap the benefits of CMP but we cannot compromise the safety of the public, officers and staff by rushing this.

We remain confident in the reliability of our current systems and processes and the specialist capabilities of our staff and officers to meet the needs of the public we serve.