WA Police, Motorola deliver public safety mobile app

Motorola Solutions and Western Australia Police (WA Police) have delivered a new public safety mobile application to operate within Apple CarPlay — a move the organisations say is a world-first.

The new integration extends the use of WA Police’s OneForce Core application, enabling frontline officers to manage key operational workflows from within their police vehicles through CarPlay. Drivers can also use voice control features for safe operation while staying focused on the road.

The technology is based on Motorola Solutions’ PSCore public safety mobile application that integrates critical operational information from multiple WA Police systems, presenting it through a single, intuitive interface. OneForce Core is a key part of WA Police’s digital policing strategy to leverage technology to improve productivity, incident awareness and safety for officers and citizens alike.

The mobile application helps more than 5000 of WA Police’s frontline officers to work more safely and efficiently every day. It is already assisting the agency’s transition to digital traffic infringement notices, removing the need to process up to 180,000 handwritten infringement notices every year.

WA Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said the smart mobile technology helps the police force to work with improved safety and focus when responding to emergency calls.

“When police officers respond to an incident, they need accurate and relevant information to inform their decisions and keep themselves and community members safe. Since deploying OneForce Core, our officers have been better informed with access to critical operational information wherever they are,” Blanch said.

“Now we’re taking the next step by extending the rich capabilities of OneForce Core into our police vehicles through the integration with CarPlay including voice controls,” he said.

Ongoing benefits from upgrading

The new solution represents another milestone for WA Police since its migration to Motorola Solutions’ PremierOne Computer Aided Dispatch system in 2015. That upgrade enhanced WA Police’s response to incidents by providing officers with access to operational data from anywhere at any time.

Vice president for Motorola Solutions Australia and New Zealand Con Balaskas said mobile technology helps organisations to make better use of their most valuable data sources.

“By extending the reach of CAD and other critical systems with smart mobile technology, organisations can work more efficiently and make better decisions about where to place their most valuable resources,” he said.

Mahesh Saptharishi, Motorola Solutions’ executive vice president and chief technology officer, said WA Police’s successful mobile technology deployment reflects the company’s human-centric research and development approach that places individual users’ needs at the heart of the solution.

“When public safety professionals require access to vital, life-saving information, it must be as intuitive and frictionless as possible,” Saptharishi said. “By leveraging new interactions with familiar technology interfaces such as CarPlay, we remove complexity from the high-stress situations responders face and help them maintain focus on their mission. We are proud to introduce this new capability which forms an important part of WA Police’s digital policing strategy,” he said.