SA equipping police with tablet technology

South Australia is allocating tablet technology to the state’s police force that will enable officers to undertake up to 95% of duties from within the field.

Panasonic Toughbook tablets will be installed in up to 680 vehicles state-wide, with 175 extra tablets available for frontline officers. The deployment is expected to be complete by 2020.

The state government has committed $7.4 million over five years to the initiative. It follows a successful 12-month trial rollout in the Elizabeth Local Service Area. The technology has been fitted to every car within the area, and is being utilised by crime scene investigators.

Now more officers are being trained in the technology, which provides police with the capability to capture, retrieve and submit information from within the field without having to return to the station to fill out and file paperwork.

“The state government is committed to building one of the largest, most efficient and technologically advanced police forces in the state’s history,” Police Minister Peter Malinauskas said.

“We want police out from behind desks and onto the frontline... Along with the implementation of mobile tablet technology, facial recognition technology is currently being rolled out and the body worn camera program is being progressed. This is in addition to the use of smartphones and fingerprint scanning technology.”

Malinauskas said the technology is expected to save around 165 man hours per day, which will achieve savings of $3.3 million per annum and equate to the deployment of around 29 extra police officers.

Image courtesy of Michael Coghlan under CC

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