Police officers are being ordered to send texts rather than speak on their radios because of the sums charged by the firm that owns the police communications network.
While chief constables face unprecedented cutbacks, the company that operates the system on which all the emergency services communicate has seen a massive rise in profits. Last year Airwave Solutions’ profit margin outstripped even that of mobile-phone giant Vodafone.
Airwave’s pre-tax profit was £170 million, a 26 per cent increase on the previous 12 months. It represents an eye-watering return of 45 per cent on the company’s £380 million turnover.
The company’s charges are said to be putting a severe strain on police budgets. Officers in one rural force have been told that a penalty charge of up to £2 a second is imposed as soon as the number of calls they make goes over a pre-arranged limit.
According to Dorset Police Federation chairman Clive Chamberlain, the punitive levy has led to a series of cost-cutting measures. ‘Airwave is a very expensive system which was forced upon the police service by the Government,’ he said.
‘It was imperative to have a secure communications system. But it has come at a very high price. The advice we’re being given from the top is to send texts as much as possible because it’s going to cost a lot less money.
‘There have been a series of briefings at which a senior officer has said it costs Dorset £2 a second whenever we go over the limit. We are being told that texting more has the potential to save tens of thousands of pounds because it costs only 4p to send 1,000 texts.’
Dorset Police declined to confirm or deny the £2-a-second figure. A spokesman said: ‘The monthly charges include a fixed price for provision of the service, including a set volume of traffic, together with a variable charge that applies if the force exceeds its set monthly traffic volume.’
Airwave refused to discuss the details of its charging structure but claimed the £2-a-second calculation was ‘misleading and inaccurate’. However, a spokesman said: ‘We do charge a usage tariff, but only for excess usage over agreed contracted levels.’
No national figures are collated for the cost of Airwave to the police service as a whole, according to the Home Office. But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that Dorset’s bill last year was £612,000, Greater Manchester’s £699,000 and North Wales’s £619,000.
The country’s biggest force, the Metropolitan Police, and a number of others said they could not reveal how much they paid because the information was commercially sensitive.
Now, in an attempt to reduce the spiralling cost, officers from forces all over Britain are being trained how to text because it is cheaper.
It means police out on patrol or responding to an incident are under orders to keep in touch with their colleagues in the control room not by talking to them but by pressing buttons.
Graphic
Last night former police commanders condemned the move and said it could compromise the safety of front-line officers and the public. The network is used by every police force, fire brigade and ambulance trust in the country.
Police officers have been given a set of 16 numerical codes that correspond to buttons on their handset. By inputting the correct combination of digits, they can report their location and whether they are issuing a warrant, making an arrest, on a meal break or returning to base. The information is automatically fed into the control room computer.
In an emergency, they can summon help in the normal way. But if they are involved in a routine procedure, they have been told to use the messaging facility instead.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday found that forces across Britain have sent their staff on texting training courses. They include North Wales, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Kent, Hertfordshire, Durham, Hampshire, Norfolk, Dorset and Dyfed-Powys.
But critics say ‘status messaging’, as it is known, is a time-wasting procedure that will distract officers and make them less alert to potential danger.
Former Scotland Yard Flying Squad commander John O’Connor said: ‘It is going to impact on their safety and operational efficiency. How can they be sure their text is going to be picked up so colleagues know their location? If you are talking to a colleague, they know exactly where you are and what you’re doing.
‘This is another layer of red tape which is being imposed in order to save an unquantifiable amount of money. Chief constables should stand up and say they are not going to accept it.’
Former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick said: ‘If officers are trying to push buttons they won’t be looking to see what is going on around them and to that extent it’s risky.
‘When they were introducing the system, it took a large chunk of the Met’s budget and there were all sorts of problems. At the beginning it didn’t even work inside buildings and we had to put in extra transmitters which involved a lot of extra cost.
‘I don’t remember being given a choice by the Home Office. We were told, “This is the system you are getting.”’
Most police forces have contracts with Airwave based on expected usage. But if officers make more calls than allowed for in the agreement, a higher tariff is applied.
Police sources say the unpredictable nature of their work means some forces can easily exceed their limit, involving them in huge extra expense.
One officer said: ‘The force’s financial controller will make a usage prediction. But then there’s a big incident and we’re radioing in all the time. That’s when the problems start.’
Read more:
Police told to send text messages because it is too expensive to speak on their radios | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook