Starting April 2013, Vodafone New Zealand will deliver customized mobile services and smartphones to NZ Police, enabling more than 6000 front-line response, investigation and community police officers to securely access information about suspects, vehicles and locations while on the move. Almost 4000 of these officers who need to undertake more complex data entry as part of their job will also be provided with a tablet.
Use of the devices will mean front-line staff gain 30 minutes productivity per shift, which equates to approximately 520,000 hours each year — the equivalent of about 345 front-line officers. The expected time savings of 30 minutes per officer per shift will be reinvested into preventative policing activities.
The initial cost of the rollout is NZ$4.3 million. Over the next 10 years, New Zealand police will spend NZ$159 million in operating expenditure to fund the technology rollout. Over the same period, the move is expected to provide New Zealand Police with productivity benefits of NZ$304.8 million. These benefits were identified by New Zealand Police during an 11-month trial involving more than 100 frontline officers in four police districts.
Vodafone has announced that New Zealand Police has chosen Vodafone New Zealand as its partner for mobile communications in a 10 year fully outsourced deal.
