UK Police Told To Text Instead Of Using Radios In Order To Save Money
from the but-no-texting-while-driving dept
Apparently, the wireless radio system that police use in the UK is quite expensive. This isn't all that surprising, since such networks need much greater reliability that traditional mobile networks, but with UK police forces having a capped deal where prices go up even higher after a certain amount is used, apparently police are instructing cops to make use of text messaging as an alternative to keep their radio usage down. While I definitely understand why the police network would be more expensive, and can see some benefits to police texting when appropriate, it does seem a bit bizarre to warn police to be cost conscious in their communicating with fellow police.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/24/police-budget-cuts-hit-poorest [guardian.co.uk]
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why would the running cost be more just for using it
it's not like a phone were you pay per minute
once the network is set up would the cost not be fixed
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Re: missing something
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Curious...
First, are they actually supplying the mobile phones in question or expecting officers to use their personal mobile? I'd hope it's the former otherwise that strokes me as just a bit dubious.
Second, assuming it's a providor agreement, do they have some kind of SLA from the network guaranteeing provision and uptime in the "policing area"? As Mike points out the reason the radio network is expensive is (partly) its' reliability. (Ignoring the multi-tennanted benefits of scale etc). You wouldn't want to trust potentially vital police communication to something less than reliable surely?
Third, since instead it's an additional method aimed at non-vital communications rather than a replacement, surely you still have to provide radio coverage for all areas anyway? Isn't that the expensive bit? I'd assume the radio network was a dedicated network - or at the most shared among services. Why does the agreement then charge for airtime on top of the cost of maintaining coverage? How much does it cost to send a radio message on a dedicated network? Doesn't that kind of charging only make sense where you're aggregating bandwidth over multiple users as in internet/ADSL provision (and barely even there in many cases)
Unless there's something I'm missing that seems to be a really really stupid agreement the goverment entered into for the radio network.
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Not only the police but everyone. Everyone needs to be cost conscious about everything.
In Japan, they clean their own work spaces, they reuse paper inside the company and keep finding ways to reuse or use more efficiently everything they got.
Off course this can bring some problems specially for the police in terms of secure channels, but this can benefit everyone, it is not only about cost for the police is about what a person learns in his job, we are learning all the time and I don't see a problem with people having to deal with costs it can be good thing.
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Stupid idea...
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Re:
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Re: Curious...
So they are not asking officers to use personal (or indeed force-issued) mobile phones, but rather the text functions on the radio handsets, in order to reduce the running costs.
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Re: Re:
So as long as the cops don't "over use" it, costs are reasonable.
It strikes me that if a Government on an austerity drive can renege on a pension commitment to someone who has spent their life making contributions on the understanding of final benefits, they can certainly renegotiate a contract with private some radio company.
But as the original article implies, there are people higher up the food chain who don't wish to rock the boat too much.
BTW, these cops don't expect to text sentences with the new arrangement, but short status codes.
I wonder if this bright idea stems from the recent exercise when a police force tweeted 24 hrs of control room info to show the public what they actually do all day.
Given that
- you can buy secure end to end encrypted cellphones
- cell companies have somewhat of a headstart over private radio networks.
It would appear to have made more sense to have put the money into fixing the gaps in the UK cell network, rather than building a new one from scratch.
After all, there are mechanisms for prioritising 999 (911) calls on networks already, and surely telcos could allow the police to roam on any and all networks they can find ?
I would think that a police officer with secure cell (with built in GPS & camera) would be a better bet than one with a fancy 3rd party radio that is just a radio.
They could upload faces, vehicle registrations etc and get route planning info or direct feed from helicopers sent in real time during a chase. And whatever else comes out next year (biometric id, real time ECG etc)
& this would be a good excuse for someone to make a genuinely rugged smartphone (something I'd like to get !)
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wut
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Re: Curious...
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This is "privatization", also known as fascism.
In the same way, hundreds of thousands of "civilians" are providing services to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last I heard, Halliburton gets $23 per meal per soldier, and again if they go back for seconds. That's why upwards of a trillion dollars has been spent "fighting" a small country for longer than WW2 against both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. And it's not going to end until the public is broke.
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POLICE TEXTS
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Re: POLICE TEXTS
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Radio
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"UK Police Told To Text Instead Of Using Radios In Order To Save Money"
;D
Commenter "The Arbiter": Laughed my arse off at your txt example. Thanx!
"IN bARFiSDGHT!!!, SEMFD HELPOP NOW GETTN A55 KIKD"
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Yes "DRM" installed of Public Safety Radios
This issue emerged in a discussion of what would happen should public service radio repeater towers became inoperative (hurricane for example). The response was that ALL radio communication would be disabled. Normally if a repeater goes down, you can continue to communicate via simplex. The ability to use Simplex as an alternative may been "disabled". Whether this is true or not, I don't know.
Finally, found an article that delves into many of the issues The Difference Between Trunked and Conventional Radio Systems. The article writes: "Most trunked radio systems rely on proprietary software. Unlike conventional (non-trunked) radios that allow various brands of radios to seamlessly communicate, most trunked radios contain software that is licensed exclusively by the manufacturer. Most trunking software is viewed as a trade secret by radio manufacturers. .... Interoperability with radio systems that use different trunking technology (different brand of equipment and/or different software versions) is usually not possible. .... Trunked radios cost between three and five times more than non-trunked radios over the life of the equipment."
The disastrous use of proprietary technologies is not limited to the content industry, but to the public sector's ability to use radio communication as well. The privatization of public safety radio system will be (is becoming) a nightmare.
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Re:
In other words, the police may not communicate effectively in situations where they really need to, because of the mental inefficiency the tradeoff has created.
I was consulting to a criminal investigative organization that was considering outsourcing their investigative desktops. The outsourcing agreement would have charged the organization by each minute of use of each desktop. I asked the executives I was working with: "do you really want your supervisors to begin to judge investigations and investigators by the cost of the use of the desktops?"
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Re: This is "privatization", also known as fascism.
There appears to be a belief that the fundamental drive of this 'arrangement' is to benefit society.
But it is clear that it is just one more tool to expropriate.
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Re: Curious...
Huh? What in the world would make you think that?
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Too Expensive?
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The biggest tactical advantage the police hold over the criminal element is the large number of friends they have with radios. You limit their communication and you limit their advantage. Because random radio traffic allows them to keep track of who is where, and can increases response times.
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LOAD NOISES.
Then they have mobile phones, they use the phone in PTT mode, (push to talk) that makes their mobiles act like two-way radio's. But they would incur the standard usage rates.
I would be very surprised in the police could not negioate a deal for thier mobile phones.
Like here in Australia, if you are with Optus, you can call other optus phones for free.
Someone said something wise, about the Government should just not pay it, like health care,, sure, except these systems have ON/OFF switches, if you dont pay, its switched to off..
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Response from Airwave
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two way radios
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