The entire network became fully operational in June 1997. The London Police believes that it has significantly increased it s police force s exposure in the community without adding any additional officers. At headquarters, it has been able to reallocate ten members of its central records staff. Officers fully trained and are now doing reports on the computer more quickly than they could using traditional pen and paper. In fact, the information is rarely more than 15 minutes out of real-time accessibility.
Management can easily monitor investigations and ensure timely disclosure to the prosecuting office.
The Criminal Investigation Division was querying the central computer to investigate a bank robbery that had just occurred. Earlier, one of the officers had uploaded a routine suspicious contact report about a person questioned in the downtown area near where the bank robbery had occurred. CID read the contact report, saw the connections and made an arrest within hours of the robbery. Before implementing a wireless data communications system, this arrest could have taken days or even weeks to be made. Both officers can then take a computer with them for onsite investigations allowing each to record witness statements or write reports directly onto the computer, eliminating the need for hand- written reports.