Merseyside on a busy weekend for visitors – the Tall Ships and Open Golf Championship – saw the police force trialling Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology.
It’s to enable commanders at police headquarters to track individual officers and vehicles at the events.
It is anticipated that the technology will enhance the force’s ability to protect the public and its officers by responding quickly and efficiently to any incidents that may occur.
The RUAG technology group has worked with Merseyside Police to develop the system which detects signals from transponders carried by officers and in vehicles. They could also be attached to police dog collars if the trial is developed further.
Assistant Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, said: "We are constantly striving to find new and innovative ways to fight the Total War on Crime. We will evaluate the effectiveness of this trial by looking at improvements in the way we deploy our officers to incidents and, if successful, we will consider extending the technology further into our organisation."
Merseyside Police is the first UK force to trial the technology as it works to increase efficiencies in its frontline operations. The same technology was used during the Euro 2008 Championships and for the last three years at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
