The Metropolitan Police has launched Police Message Broadcasting (PMB), a system for passing information to residents and businesses.
While Westminster can point to good communications for a number of years – the Westminster Council email system, that has been featured in Professional Security – other
boroughs in the capital lack such a defined system. Westminster for instance sent out a Powerpoint attachement with the CCTV stills of the wanted July 21 bomb attempt suspects, as the Met released the footage.
Recently Westminster launched CommunitySafe, described by the council and Met as an enhanced communications platform, incorporating fast time
messaging via SMS texting, email and website information including mapping of incidents occurring around central London.
In due course PMB and the Westminster system will merge into one, Communitysafe, allowing other partner agencies like the council to contact users in times of civil emergencies and appeals, so that it is not just a police system.
Work is under way to encourage all London boroughs to incorporate such a system. The appeal: one stop local communications from local emergency services, as well as appropriate localised information to assist everyone.
