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Police officer Tim Schumacher sees his colleagues outside in the control center at a glance: they are the black squares on the city map of Mönchengladbach, which he has in front of him on a large screen. Inside the black squares are small ones that change color. They show who is currently on duty and who is not. That was not always the case in the Mönchengladbach police headquarters. In the past, when an emergency call came in, Schumacher first had to ask over the radio: “Who is good?”
Today, the officer knows this at a glance and can radio the best-placed available patrol car directly and guide them to the scene. “We save valuable time every time.”
Knowing where the cars are: Starting next month, all patrol cars in North Rhine-Westphalia will be constantly located using GPS satellite navigation. For this purpose, the technology has been upgraded and tested in the 47 control centers of the police headquarters and district police authorities over the past three years.
Reul: “groundbreaking decision”
NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) spoke on Tuesday in Mönchengladbach of a “groundbreaking decision”: “We are faster, can help faster and colleagues rush to help faster,” he says.
Luckily, initial fears that the system could be misused for employee control have vanished. “I don’t care if the officials go get a roll. It even has to be,” says Reul. Especially in large districts with long journeys, it is very important to know where the cars are.
GPS monitoring was the first to be introduced and tested in Mönchengladbach. In the coming month, the remaining 10 of the 47 control centers across the country should also be equipped accordingly. Then not only all patrol cars, but also the officers with their handheld radios in the control center can be located at any time. The pilot phase cost one million euros.
Snapchat for cops
Students who have been able to see where their friends are on the social media app Snapchat for years may be surprised that the police are only now able to do so.
Not only did different technical systems have to be “married”, it was also necessary to avoid overloading the system, reports Thomas Volkmann, who drove the project at the State Office for Police Technology. That is why the position of the patrol cars is only sent every 20 seconds or every 100 meters, that of the handheld radios every 90 seconds or 100 meters.
In an emergency, the officer in the control center can see immediately which patrol car is ready and closest to the scene. White means: “on patrol”, i.e. ready for action. Blue: “on guard”, green: “on the way” to the action and red “on duty”. Schumacher can also guide patrols to their destination in unfamiliar terrain and notices when they get lost.
Locating emergency services: data protection guaranteed
The fact that the Mönchengladbach police were particularly open-minded and were awarded the contract for the pilot phase was perhaps due to an incident a few years ago: “At that time, a patrol accidentally came across a mass brawl between two large families and got caught between the fronts,” reports the head of the police inspection, George Lehnen. The radio contact broke off after a call for help, and the reinforcements didn’t know where their colleagues were. “It took us a while to find her and it was pretty close in the end.”
The second scenario, which also really happened, the officials affirm: A witness watches an expensive sports car being hoisted onto a van by car thieves. The officer in the control center directs the patrol car when approaching the scene of the crime in such a way that the thieves are blocked from escaping. “They never got out of the residential area.”
GPS monitoring has probably even saved one person’s life: “A woman called the emergency number here and said her husband was having a heart attack. We saw in the control center that one of our dog handlers happened to be nearby.” After just two minutes, he was able to start resuscitation. “The man survived.”
And data protection regulations ensure that the Minister of the Interior will never know the favorite bakery of the respective patrol officer: “The data will not be saved,” assures Volkmann.
dpa
urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:230321-99-32515/3
