The Metropolitan Police are set to begin a 2 month trial of Automatic Person Location Systems (APLS) technology at the end of July. The trial of this will be introduced in Kensington and Chelsea, but the 2.2 million pound scheme is expected to be introduced across other regions of the Capital as well.
This system is being introduced as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner; Sir Paul Stephenson would like officers to patrol the streets alone rather than in pairs. Some officers have been arguing that patrolling alone would be unsafe, but senior Met officials have guaranteed that by using the APLS radios the officers can be found traced at any specific time.
The new GPS system will not replace the traditional airwave radio system that officers already carry but will be incorporated into this device. The APLS will help the officer’s locations to be identified straight away when and if they are in need of urgent assistance, where as the airwave system only allows the office to identify the officer but not their location. Obviously, to analyse where the officer could be takes time, time that could be vital.
Automatic signals will be sent to the officer’s radio in intervals, the information that is sent back will enable the office to plot on a map the officer’s position. This map will create a ‘snail trail’ as the location of the officer changes.
